Bonding Through Chaos
by seasidewriter1
Summary: Arabella Fletcher has been Ben Gates's friend since they met each other in history class in middle school. What happens when she helps him try and find the treasure, and she meets the lovable Riley? Follows the movie plot with one OC. Rated K for swears
1. Prologue

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

_**Foreword: I decided to start writing this after I got the idea for this last year. I always thought Riley deserved someone, so I figured I might as well give him someone =D And I disregarded the date in the beginning in the movie when Ben is a kid, cause I'm not good at math in the least bit. So when they go on the treasure hunt, just assume it's the time the movie puts it, or if you want, a little closer to 2011. So, onward towards the story!**_

Prologue

" I cannot believe you convinced your dad to bring you to D.C. next week." I said to my friend Ben.

" Honestly, neither can I. I was sure he'd say something like, 'you already memorized a history text book, why do you need me to bring you do D.C.?" Ben said before laughing.

Ben and I were sitting in his backyard, enjoying the lazy days of summer break. Ben's actual full name was Benjamin Franklin Gates. He loves history like it was a little puppy- and honestly, so do I. We even met in history class in seventh grade. But the thing is, I had skipped two grades, so I was an eleven year old in seventh grade. Ben was the first person to actually talk to me- he didn't mind I was younger, and a history geek. In fact, he actually seemed to admire it. It had been three years since that day, and we were still so close, we were almost inseparable.

" I wish I could go with you." I muttered, swiping my hair out of my face.

" If you want to go, you can come, Arabella." Ben said with a smile. I smiled back and bumped his shoulder with mine.

" I'll ask my parents. But won't your father ban me from said trip?" I asked. Ben raised an eyebrow.

" Why'd he do that? He likes you." Ben asked in confusion. I rolled my eyes and gave him a look. I thought we had actually been through this before.

" He would probably think we'd be looking for the next clue." I said with a small smile. Ben actually grinned.

" Stay here." He said before running into his house. I rolled my eyes at him. He seemed to have a tendency for running off randomly.

Ben, after we got to know each other pretty well, told me about the Templar's Treasure. He told me that his family had been searching for it for possibly a few hundred years. But now, he was the only one looking. I had immediately become interested and so started Ben and I looking for the next clue to lead us to the treasure. Now is obsession was mine as well.

Ben rushed back outside, holding a fairly large book in his arms. He sat down next to me and smiled again, placing the old book before us. Inside that book contained all the information on the treasure that we currently had. Including the one we were still trying to figure out.

My shoulder length light brown wavy/curly hair blew into my face and I brushed it away from my eyes. I smiled at him again before we both opened the book. We flipped the fragile paper before we came to the page we apparently both had in mind. Ben pulled out the scrap of wrinkled, yellowed paper. We both looked at each other.

" The Secret Lies With Charlotte." We both said, reading the writing on the paper.

" Are you still positive you want to join me in trying to find this?" he asked me.

" Of course! I don't care if people think I'm crazy. The treasure _needs_ to be found, and I'm going to help you find it." I told him. He held out his hand with a grin. I grinned back and took his hand. We made a deal then. We'd both find the treasure, at any cost.

_**Afterword: Sooooooo, the prologue is short, but the first chapter will not be. I know that this is probably a bit boring, but please read the next chapter! It will start to get better, I swear! I also apologize if I took anyone's ideas, I swear I didn't mean to if I did! And if anyone is wondering, at this time, Ben should be eighteen and Arabella should be sixteen. She is a very smart girl! Please review! Hope you stick around to read the better parts!**_


	2. Chapter One: Phone Call

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter One: Phone Call

**Nine Years Later…**

Sunlight was streaming down from the sky, hitting the monuments of D.C. I had my hair pulled back and sunglasses on top of my head. It was a pleasant day with a nice breeze. I was walking past the World War II Memorial as well as the Washington Monument. I worked at the Smithsonian- The American History Museum of course! I didn't find any parking by the museum that morning, so I had to park near the World War II Memorial.

I glanced at the memorials and I couldn't help but smile. D.C. was so full of history. I stopped to look at the World War II Memorial. I remembered when Ben and I made our trip here. We both stood around and discussed the Second World War and the architectural pieces of the memorial. I smiled.

Ben and I both ended up going to the same college together and we both majored in history, just like everyone in our high school predicted. Unfortunately, I hadn't heard from Ben for the last two years. We had both been so focused on finding jobs and apartments that we both just sort of… fell out of touch. I missed talking to him and going on history rants and even missed our arguments. It wasn't the same waiting around the museum, hoping someone would ask a question. I sighed. I had still been researching that clue to still find nothing. And if good ol' Ben had discovered anything, I obviously didn't know. And with that thought, I continued towards my car.

OOOO

I tossed my bag onto the small couch once I entered my apartment. The sun was dipping low in the sky, and the clouds were turning orange. I flicked the lights on before grabbing a soda from the reasonably big fridge, grabbing a scrapbook from the bookshelf and sitting on the couch. I leaned back before opening the scrapbook. I skipped about four or five pages before stopping.

On that page was a picture of Ben and I standing by the bread line statue at the FDR Memorial when we I was fifteen, and he was seventeen. Ten years ago… God, that seemed like a whole lifetime ago. I looked through the pictures and found myself wishing I'd be able to talk to him again even more.

I shut the book and grabbed my cell phone. I found his contact and stared at it. His contact picture was smiling back at me. I was bout to hit 'call' when my phone suddenly rang, causing me to jump. And guess who it was?

It was Ben.

I smirked. It was like he knew I was going to call. I answered the phone.

" Hey, Ben." I said smiling.

" Hey, Arabella." Came Ben's familiar voice from the other end of the line. He sounded like he was smiling.

" I haven't heard from you for a while. It's been a bit too long." I said popping open my soda.

" I know… I'm sorry about that. I think we just got too caught up finding jobs that we kinda lost touch." He said.

" Exactly my thoughts." I told him. " So, what's happening?" Ben chuckled at my apparently funny word choice.

" Been searching for Charlotte." He admitted.

" So have I. Do you still think she could be a ship?" I asked, referring to our idea that came to us just in our last year of college.

" I think it's the only way Charlotte could still be around." Ben said. The tone of his voice told me that we were slipping back into our history rant. I smiled.

"That certainly is true." I said. " Have you found any leads on the clue?" There was a pause. " Ben… What did you figure out?"

" It's a little complicated, but in a short version… I think I know where _Charlotte _is." Ben said sheepishly. I sat there for a moment, in shock.

" You… um… what? R-really?" I managed to say.

" Yeah…" He trailed off. I sensed from the tone of his voice. And his hesitation that something was up.

" Ben. What's up? Is anything wrong?" I asked.

" Well... I'm uh… I still think that _The Charlotte _is a ship from Boston, but… but I think it somehow ended up in the arctic." Ben paused. " I'm in the arctic, Arabella" He finished. I sat frozen for a moment.

" Ben… Did you just say arctic?" I asked slowly.

" Yes." He said.

" And _The Charlotte_… you think she's there?" I asked again.

" Yes…" He said quietly.

" Benjamin Franklin Gates! Didn't we promise to find the treasure together? Why didn't you tell me about this before now?" I demanded, standing up. I was upset. No! I was more than upset! I was furious! We both promised to do this together! Ben was gonna get it.

" Arabella, I'm sorry. I swear to God I didn't forget you-" I cut him off.

" Really? It certainly seems like it…" I grumbled. I snatched my soda can. I took a swig out of it before continuing to listen to Ben.

" Listen to me for a moment. I had to start hiring a crew for the last few months. I knew you were busy at the Smithsonian and by the time everything was planned out, we had to leave almost immediately. I'm really sorry, Arabella…" Ben explained. I didn't say anything for a long moment. I was thinking.

I couldn't forgive him for just… leaving me out of this. It was something we pledged to do together. I couldn't and _shouldn't_ forgive him. But… he's my best friend. I guess his answer was honest enough, and I suppose that being busy with all that, things, and maybe even people could slip one's mind…

" Arabella…?" Ben asked softly.

" Sorry. I'm just spacing out… like usual." I said with a half-hearted laugh.

" Look, I'm still really sorry…" Ben said.

" Ben. It's okay, I understand. But if you find the treasure promise me one thing- you will save me some or else I swear to God you'll be sorry." I told him, beginning to smile again. Ben chuckled.

" I promise." He said.

" Cross your heart?" I teased.

" Hope to die." Ben finished, laughing a bit.

" And don't worry, I won't alert your father." I said. Ben laughed outright at that.

" Thanks. I'm not so sure he'd care that much though." Ben admitted. I rolled my eyes.

" Sure, Ben. Sure." I said.

" I'm gonna have to go now though. Need to rest up before we start searching tomorrow." Ben told me, a tinge of guilt still apparent in his voice.

" Okay. Good luck, and don't freeze yourself. Call me when you know you'll be coming back."

" I will. Bye, Arabella." He said.

" Bye, Ben." I said before hanging up. I sat on my couch, flicking the TV on. I turned on a movie and pulled down my hair, letting it fall in waves of loose curls. I ran a hand through it, messing it up slightly, but I was never the kind of girl to care if my hair looked messy or not.

Yes, I just forgave Ben. I had to- it _was_ his family name that would be cleared. He had been searching before he met me. Of course I was disappointed for not being there with him, but as I stared into space, I got this odd feeling in my stomach- a strong almost nauseating pull. I dismissed it as nothing and shut my eyes, thinking about _The Charlotte _and the Templar Treasure.

_**Third Person Point of View**_

Ben put his phone in his pocket before walking away from the window to the tiny couch in the small cabin he was sharing with a pretty good friend, Ian Howe and their tech guy, Riley Poole.

Glancing out of the window, Ben saw the blank whiteness of the Arctic Circle. He really _did_ feel bad for accidentally leaving Arabella out of this. He ran a hand through his brown hair and sighed, shutting his eyes.

" What was with all the laughing?" Ian asked with his English accented voice as he entered the tiny living room, swiping his blond hair from his face.

" I called a friend of mine. She reminded me of some things we used to joke about." Ben said smiling a bit, opening his eyes.

" I see. Does this friend know about your treasure obsession?" Ian asked.

" She does. She even took it up as her own obsession." He confirmed.

" _She_?" Riley asked, walking in with his laptop. He had a thick sweater on along with wool socks on his feet. " You actually _know_ a girl?" He teased with a tiny smirk.

" And _you_ do?" Ian asked with a smirk. Riley's face dropped as he grumbled and sat down beside Ben and opened his laptop.

" I do…" Riley muttered.

" Oh, really?" Ian asked. Riley said nothing more and began to type on the keyboard.

" Leave him alone, Ian." Ben insisted. Ian rolled his eyes and fiddled with his eyes and fiddled with his pocketknife. Ben looked over at Riley, who seemed intensely focused on whatever he was doing.

" So, Riley, what are you doing?" He asked.

" Just making sure the navigation system is still working. My laptop was half frozen because _someone_ left it by a _cracked window_." Riley said glancing up at Ian, who only raised an eyebrow in a silent challenge. Riley glared slightly at him before looking back down. He clicked a few more things and then sighed in relief. " It still works, thank _God_."

" Good." Ben said. " I have a sneaking suspicion that something would go wrong if we no longer had your laptop."

" Nope. We'd be lost, then we'd freeze, then we'd die because we froze and no one would come to find us." Riley said in a monotone. Riley ran a hand over his face, then left it on his chin, sighing. " I'll have to put the coordinates back into the system though…" He dug through his jeans pocket before finding a crumpled up piece of lined paper. Even computer geniuses had hand written copies of things.

Riley's deep brown hair was messy and he ran a hand over his goatee, staring at his handwriting. His light blue eyes looked tired and his posture said the same thing- his shoulders were slumped, his legs were limply crossed, and his head was hanging a bit and tilted slightly to the right.

Ben hand been enjoying Riley's company over the time he had known him. Sure, the twenty-five year old enjoyed wise cracking, but he had a good sense of humor, and he reminded him slightly of Arabella in a way. They were both the same age, even. When they got back to D.C. he'd have to introduce them. They'd probably get along pretty well. Riley had been ecstatic when Ben had asked him to leave his job in his tiny cubical in a tech-support office. He jumped out of his office chair, causing it to fall over, and gave Ben a big hug, saying he'd happily do it.

" Well, I'm going to get some extra sleep so I'll be rested enough to start searching tomorrow." Ian said, standing and putting his pocketknife away.

" Have fun. Don't go freezing more technology, you could kill us all." Riley stated rolling his eyes as he pulled his square-framed glasses on. Ian shot Riley an annoyed look before disappearing into his room.

" You're seriously making him mad." Ben pointed out to Riley. Riley smirked and looked at Ben.

" He half froze my laptop. I'm _enjoying_ making him mad." Riley said breaking out into a full smile. Ben laughed a bit as Riley quickly typed in the coordinates. Ben watched what he was doing, but didn't pick up on any of it at all. " So, the girl you were talking to earlier, is she your girlfriend you failed to tell me that you had?" Riley inquired as he continued typing.

Ben chuckled and shook his head.

" No. She's not. We've known each other since we were in seventh grade. She's been helping me figure out the clue about Charlotte since then. I think you two may get along well. She's your age." Ben explained. Riley stopped typing and looked over at him.

" She's twenty-five? But, if she was in seventh grade with you, she should be twenty-seven." Riley said, quickly doing the easy math in his head.

" That would be true if she didn't skip two grades. She was eleven when she was in seventh grade." Ben explained.

" Wow. That is one smart chick." Riley stated. Ben rolled his eyes. The two stayed up for a while longer, talking about how they were going to organize the next day, but they eventually both wound up exhausted. They said goodnight before going to bed. They were going to have an exciting day.

OOOO

The next morning was a rush. Everyone woke up early and began to bundle up for the expedition. Ben pulled on two sweaters, a black parka-like coat with fur lining the hood. His thick black pants were tucked into black snow boots and he grabbed a pair of snow glasses. Riley came out of his room, his hands gloved, a red hat that had tassels resting on his shoulders was on his head, and he had a pair of boots in his hands. I yanked them on before pulling his thick coat on over his two shirts and sweaters.

" You look… comfortable." Ian stated, sitting on the couch, tossing Riley a pair of gloves. Riley clumsily caught them.

" I actually am. This will keep me warm as a… well… as an unfrozen person." Riley said with a small smile as he bent down to tie his shoes. After a moment he groaned and quietly muttered, " I broke a shoelace… this is gonna be great…"

Powell, Victor and Shaw all walked into the living room from outside, tracking snow onto the rug. Ian knew them all and they were all very good friends.

" Let's get movin' already. I'm already cold." Shaw muttered.

" Sounds like a great idea. Riley, do you have all your equipment?" Ben asked. Riley pointed to a few cases. " Good. I'll help you get them outside." The two grabbed the cases and walked out the door, getting hit in the face with freezing cold air. Riley blinked his eyes as the air stung them. They hauled the cases into the snow tractors, which were fairly big and an atrocious shade of orange, and Riley hopped into the back and began to set everything up. He put his laptop on his legs and pulled out a small hula-girl dashboard ornament, which he kept close to him. As Ian got in the front he looked back at Riley, pulling his snow glasses on. He raised an eyebrow when he spotted the hula-girl.

" What? It reminds me of a nice warm place." Riley defended himself.

" C'mon. Let's get moving. Riley, is your tracking model up?" Ben asked, climbing behind the driver's wheel.

" It will be right about… now." Riley said pulling up the program. We're good to go."

After about a half hour, the only sight they could all see was snow. Just white landscape and cold snow. They're cheeks were all flushed and Riley's nose was pink.

" I was thinking about Hansen and Perry, crossing this kind of terrain with nothing but dog sleds and on foot. Can you imagine?" Ben said to Ian and Riley after a long period of nothing but the sound of the snow tractors rumbling engines.

" It's extraordinary…" Ian said with no interest in his voice as he looked out to the blank landscape. Riley rolled his eyes at the two and looked off. A sudden beeping sound from his computer and quickly looked at the screen. He saw the map and the trackers on the screen. A little message popped up and he quickly read it as Ian asked,

" Are we closer?"

" Assuming Ben's theory is correct and my tracking model is accurate we should be getting very… close… but don't go by me… I broke a shoelace this morning…" Riley said in his signature monotone. Ben and Ian both glanced back at him, giving him an odd look. " It's-it's a bad omen." Riley said with complete sincerity.

" Should we go around and go home?" Ian asked with mock worry.

" Or we could pull over and throw him out here." Ben suggested, teasing his friend. He and Ian laughed a bit as Ben glanced back at Riley.

" Ha-ha-ha!- okay." Riley said with a fake smile for a fleeting second before his face went serious. He looked back down at his screen.

" Riley, you're not missing that little window-less cubical we found you in, are you?" Ben teased. Riley laughed.

" No, no! Absolutely _not_!" Riley said with a large grin. The beeping on his computer sounded again, only more rapidly this time. Ben looked back at him, eagerly. Riley looked at the screen and a message appeared. It read; 'TARGET REACHED. CHARLOTTE MAPPING'.

They stopped the tractors before they all got out and stood on the snow-treads of the tractors. Shaw looked around, staring at the frozen wasteland stretching out before them. Weren't they looking for a ship?

" Why are we stopping? I thought we were looking for a _ship_." Shaw asked.

" I don't see any ship." Powell said with this thick accent.

" She's out there." Ben said. Riley wiggled his way out of his seat as Ben grabbed the metal detectors, handing them out to everyone. Hey split up within a small distance and began to slowly hover the metal detectors over the surface of the snow.

" This is a waste of time! How could a ship end up way out here?" Shaw asked Riley, who had pulled his hood up and the faux fur was tickling his face.

" Well… I'm no expert, but, it could be that the hydrothermic properties of this region produce hurricane force ice storms, that cause the ocean to freeze, then melt and then refreeze resulting in a semi-solid migrating landmass…" Riley glanced at a small GPS device in his hand. " That would land a ship, right around here." He looked up at Shaw, whose face was completely blank and his snow glasses, which added to the blank look, blocked his eyes. Riley glanced off before taking a step and walking away from him.

Ben had strayed off a little farther than the others, in attempt to cover more ground. He was looking at the snow's surface, hoping maybe something could be protruding from the snow, but there was nothing. He paused as he heard the beeping of his metal detector become closer together till he quickly knelt down, yanking his snow-pick from his belt. He began to hack at the snow, pulling the clumps away, until he heard a metallic ring. He froze. He lightly hit the area again, hearing the same clang. A small gasp of breath left him as he began frantically pushing the snow away and he saw brass. Brass. In the middle of the snow was something made of brass. He quickly cleared more snow away till he could just see a few risen letters. It said 'Boston, Massachusetts' and if Ben knew what this was, it was a ship bell. And the name of that ship should be on that bell. He yanked a water bottle out and lightly drizzled it onto the metal. He smiled as he saw the name he longed to see for years. The saw the name 'CHARLOTTE'. He found her. He found the _Charlotte_. He shut his eyes and let out a breath of disbelief.

" Hello, beautiful." He muttered. He immediately wished Arabella could have been there to share that moment with him. He was kneeling right there with the _Charlotte_ probably just beneath him. He could be just about to find the treasure.

" Guys! I found it!" Ben shouted with excitement. All activity ceased as the group ran over. Riley and Ian were the first there.

" Oh my God…" Riley muttered. Ian grinned and slapped Ben on the back.

" We found her." He said.

It took the better part of the day to dig _Charlotte_ out of the snow. All the masts were gone, but the figurehead was still present. It was that of a woman and she appeared to be smiling, as if happy to see daylight again. Ian and Ben were leaning against part of the ship, taking a rest from digging. Ben clapped Ian on the back.

" If you hadn't shown up two years ago, hadn't believed the treasure was real, I don't know if I ever would have found _Charlotte_!" Ben told Ian. Yes, Ben had known Ian for two years, they had met just a month or so after he and Arabella had fallen out of touch. Ben felt that even though he probably wouldn't have found certain things without Ian's help, he wouldn't have known _Charlotte_ was a ship without Arabella. Ian grinned at him.

" You would have found it, I have no doubts. That's why I didn't think it was that crazy of an investment like everyone said!" Ian said as he laughed a bit. Ben laughed as well.

" I'm just relieved that I'm not as crazy as everyone said I was! Or my dad was, or my grand-dad, or my _great_ grand-dad!" Ben said and couldn't stop grinning. Ben stood and Riley smiled at him, nudging his elbow. " Alright! Let's get moving!" Ben said as he, Riley, and Ian took the first steps down to below deck, into the ship that no one had been aboard in so long. They were all smiling, for their efforts had paid off, but they didn't know that their long journey was just beginning.

_**Afterword: Hope the first chapter was better than the prologue and that maybe some of you who read this will be hooked and read the coming chapters! The next chapter will be up soon! Hope you enjoyed it! REVIEWS ARE LOVED! Thanks!**_


	3. Chapter Two: Reunion After Betrayal

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Two: Reunion After Betrayal

_**Third Person**_

Stepping down below decks, everyone switched on a flashlight. Everything was frost coated, and chairs were frozen to the floor. Icicles hung from the ceiling, and very little ambient light reached them. Ben found a pair of doors that lead down into the sleeping quarters below them. He wrenched them open and began to very carefully step on the steps that had piles of frost and snow on them. Everyone's breath was visible in the frigid air but the cold was barely felt because excitement had probably numbed their senses.

On that deck, hammocks still hung, coated in ice and snow and stiff as a board. They all began to walk through the rows of them, gently bumping them now and again. Riley was shinning his flashlight around him, marveling at how the internal structure of the ship was close to perfectly preserved. He shone his flashlight down towards a hammock, moving aside one on top of it; he spotted a frozen body still in his hammock.

" OH! OH!" Riley said as he began to flip out. He stumbled backwards and slipped, falling onto his backside, continuing to scramble away from the frozen man. " Oh, God!" Riley scrambled back to his feet as Ben stared at him.

" You handled that well." Ben stated blandly. Riley was still shaking, and he hugged his flashlight close to his chest, trying to calm his heart and his breath. Ben spotted doors ahead of them. " This is it! It's the cargo hold." Ben said with a smile. Riley forgot his moment of terror and smiled as Ben broke the ice-encrusted lock, and opened the door. They all stepped inside to find- nothing but snow covered rope, wood, cannons and barrels. Riley shone his flashlight around the cargo hold.

" You think it's in the barrels?" He asked after an awkward moment of silence. Everyone found the closest barrel and broke it open. Inside was nothing but a black powder. Ian took some in his glove-clad hands and let it slip through before sniffing his hand.

" Gunpowder." He stated. Piles of the gunpowder now littered the floor, and it didn't help when Riley pulled a cork from one of the barrels, sending the powder cascading from the hole.

" Oh! Oh! Okay!" Riley said trying to find a way to stop it.

Ben looked around the hold and spotted a human-like figure on the ground. He shone his flashlight on what was another frozen body. This man's skin was a brown-green-grey with yellowed bared teeth and was wearing a large hat, holding onto a barrel along with a rifle pulled against his body. It was the captain by the looks of what used to be his clothing.

" Now why would the captain be guarding this barrel…" Ben muttered with curiosity. He knelt down and began to gently pry the captain's hand off the barrel. Ian and Shaw were still sifting through gunpowder trying to find the treasure within the barrels. When Ben finally liberated the barrel from the captain's grip, he opened it and poured out the gunpowder, spotting something inside. He pulled out something wrapped up in a cloth.

" I found something!" Ben called. Everyone looked over at him and froze. Everyone made their way to a table in the center of the room, where Ben began to unwrap whatever was in the cloth.

" What is it?" Riley asked eagerly. Gently unwrapping the cloth, he revealed an ornately decorated box. Ben looked at Ian and they both exchanged a small smile before Ben opened the box. Inside was a pipe that was shaped like a castle towards the end and a wooden handle and a thicker white piece towards the top. Ben's smile stayed very faintly on his face. He gingerly picked it up with ungloved hands.

" Do you guys know what this is?" He asked as he glanced at everyone's confused faces.

" Is it a… billion dollar pipe?" Riley asked with hushed excitement. Ian smirked and took the pipe carefully from Ben.

" It's a meerschaum pipe." Ian said. " Ah, it's beautiful." He said while examining it.

" See the intricacy of the scroll work on the stem?" Ben said, again wishing Arabella was there to share the moment with them.

" Is it a… million dollar pipe?" Riley asked with a hopeful grin.

" No, it's a clue" Ben said taking the pipe again. Ian's smile began to fall. " Let me see that…" He carefully twisted and pulled the handle off. Riley stared at Ben shocked.

" What, no! Don't _break_ it!" Riley whined.

" We are one step closer to the treasure, gentlemen." He said with a smile.

" Ben, I thought you said the treasure would be on the _Charlotte_." Ian said crossing his arms.

" No, the secret lies with Charlotte. I said it _could_ be here." Ben said pulling a knife from his pocket. Ben pressed the tip into his thumb till blood began to appear. Riley winced as he watched. Ben rubbed his blood across the thick white cylinder on the pipe's stem, then rolled it across a piece of paper in a small book he carried. As he did, words and symbols began to appear.

" It's Templar symbols…" He muttered. He held out his hand for Riley's flashlight. He took it and shone it on the paper. Ben began to read what it said,

" The legend writ,

the stain affected,

the key in Silence undetected,

fifty-five in iron pen,

Mister Matlack can't offend."

Riley looked at Ben and raised his eyes in confusion. Ben thought a moment.

" It's a riddle." Ben stated. He grabbed his gloves again. " I need to think." He walked off, leaving a confused looking group of people at the table. " The legend writ, the stain affected…" Ben muttered. " What legend? There's the legend of the Templar Treasure. The stain affects the legend. How?" Everyone was now watching him in confusion, especially Riley. Ian looked a little put off by the whole 'the treasure isn't here' aspect. " The key in silence undetected… wait." Ben sat down. " The legend the key, there is something. A map. Maps have legend, maps have keys. It's a map. An _invisible_ map." He figured out. Ian put a hand to his forehead, holding the pipe.

" Wait. What do you mean _invisible_?" Ian asked with a tinge of frustration in his voice. " An invisible map?"

" The stain affected could refer to a dye or a reagent to bring about a certain result. Combine with the key in silence undetected, it implies that the affect is to make what was undetectable, detectable. _Unless_… the key in silence could be-"

" Prison." Shaw cut in. Ben looked over at him with a look that clearly said 'what the Hell are you talking about?'

" Albuquerque." Riley said cheerfully. He looked at Shaw. " See? I can do it too! Snorkel!"

" Its where the map is. Fifty-five in iron pen, iron pen is a prison." Shaw explained.

" _Or_ it could be the primary writing agent of the time, which was iron gall ink, the pen is… just a pen. But why not say a pen? Why say iron pen?" Ben began analyzing the possibilities again.

" 'Cause it's a prison…" Shaw muttered like an upset child.

" Wait a minute. Iron pen. Iron does not describe the ink in the pen, it describes _what_ was pen, it was _iron_, it was _firm_, it was _mineral_- no, no, no… wait a minute, wait a minute…" Ben began to rethink. Riley watched him in amazement, not getting how he could be getting all that info from a few lines of writing. " It was _firm_, it was _adamant_, it was _resolved_! It was… resolved. Mister Matlack can't offend… Timothy Matlack was the official scribe at the Continental Congress, a _calligrapher_, not a writer. And to make sure he did _not_ offend the map, it was put on the back of a _resolution_ that he transcribed, a _resolution_ that fifty-five men signed… The Declaration of Independence." Ben stated in conclusion. Everyone looked at him.

" Oh-ho-ho…" Ian muttered.

" C'mon there's no invisible map on the back of the Declaration of Independence!" Riley said, attempting to be the voice of reason.

" It's quite clever, really." Ian said. " A document of that importance would insure the map's survival. And you said several masons signed it, yeah?"

" Yeah… Nine for sure." Ben muttered in shock.

" We'll have to arrange a way to examine it." Ian stated as if it would be the simplest thing in the world. Ben's head snapped towards him.

" This is one of the most important documents in history, they're not going to just let us… waltz in and run chemical test on it!" Ben said.

" What do you propose we do?" He asked.

" I don't know!" Ben snapped. Riley sighed and looked down, his nose even pinker than before.

" Then we'll borrow it." Ian said.

" Steal it?" Ben clarified. Ian looked at him. " I don't think so."

" Ben! The Treasure of the Knights Templar is the treasure of all treasures!" Ian began.

" Oh, really, I didn't know that." Ben said with an edge to his voice.

" Look, Ben, I understand your bitterness, I really do. You've spent your entire life searching for this treasure only to have the most respected historical community treat you and your family with mockery and contempt. You should be able to rub this treasure in their arrogant faces. And I want you to have a chance to do that." Ian told Ben.

" How?" He asked.

" We all have our areas of expertise, you don't think mine are confined to writing checks do you?" Ian asked. Ben looked over at Ian with a look of worry and anger on his face. Ian wasn't planning on doing this was he? He couldn't be _crazy_ enough to try that stunt, could he?

" In another life, I arranged a number of operations of… questionable legality." Ian continued. Ben could not believe what he was hearing.

" I'd take his word for it if I were you." Shaw said walking over.

" So don't worry. I'll make all the arrangements." Ian said in what was meant to be a comforting tone to his voice.

" No." Ben said standing and facing Ian and Shaw.

" I _really_ need your help here." Ian said.

" Ian, I'm not gonna let you steal the Declaration of Independence!" Ben said in exasperation. It was crazy! How on Earth did he trust this man? If there was one thing he knew, he wasn't going to trust him any more.

" Okay. From this point on, all your going to be is a hindrance." Ian said turning away. He nodded to Shaw, who pulled a gun and trained his sights on Ben. He handgun was silver and fairly large and Ben stared at the muzzle of the gun pointed towards him in shock.

" Hey!" Riley said in surprise.

" What are you gonna do? Are you gonna shoot me, Shaw?" Ben asked. Shaw smirked. Ben stared at Ian. " Well you can't shoot me. There's more to the riddle. Information you don't have, and I do. I'm the only one who can figure it out and you know that." Ben said. _Nice play, Ben! _Riley thought with optimism and hope.

" He's bluffing." Shaw said. Ian searched Ben's face. Ben laughed slightly.

" We've played poker together, Ian, you know I can't bluff." He said.

" Tell me what I need to know, Ben. Or I'll shoot your friend." Ian said. Shaw then trained the gun on Riley.

" Hey!" Riley shouted, trying to hide behind a few pulley-lines.

" Quiet, Riley! Your job is finished here." Ian said threateningly. Ben glanced at Riley then Shaw and Ian before quickly lighting a flare. It sparked to life and Shaw's gun was pointed at him again.

" Look where you're standing." Ben said smugly. Ian and Shaw looked down to see a large pile of gunpowder. " All that gunpowder. You shoot me, I drop this, we all go up."

" Ben…" Riley asked with worry.

" What happens when the flare burns down? Tell me what I need to know, Ben." Ian said with patients.

" You need to know… that Shaw can catch!" Ben said tossing the flare towards Shaw. Riley squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for his impending doom. Ian thankfully caught the flare before the flame hit the ground.

" Nice try there, Ben." Ian said with a smug smirk just before his glove caught fire, and he dropped the flare. It landed on the ground and ignited the gunpowder. Everyone jumped back as fire roared upwards. Ben dove behind some crates as Shaw shot at him. Riley ducked as a bullet was sent his way. Ben looked at Ian as he watched him follow Shaw out the cargo hold door. Ian seemed to have a flash of regret in his eyes, but the flash was replaced by a spurt of fire that caused him to jump back and shut and lock the door. Ben stomped on the ground till he found a hollow spot.

" RILEY! GET OVER HERE!" Ben shouted. Riley got up form where he had fallen and glanced in terror at the fire that was slowly spreading around the hold. Ben lifted up a small hatch in the floor and pulled Riley over to it.

" Get in!" Ben said.

" What is it!" Riley asked.

" Smuggler's hold, get in!" Ben said all but pushing Riley into it. Riley slid in and Ben followed, closing the hatch above them. They began to run down the snowy passage before Ben found another door like-hatch.

" Get down!" Ben said as Riley dove down and Ben shoved the door down, blocking them from the direct blast of the impending explosion. There was an earsplitting bang and Riley and Ben were knocked to the ground from the impact of the explosion. Rubble, bits of wood, ash and snow were all pilled on top of them. They lay there for a very long moment, their bodies still frozen in shock from what had just happened. The _Charlotte_ was now nothing but smoking rubble.

Ben and Riley slowly moved their way up through the debris and were gasping for air. Their ears were ringing and Riley sounded like he was hyperventilating.

" Are you okay? Ben asked Riley. Riley could only nod and gesture towards him as if to say 'and you?' " I'm fine. C'mon." They climbed out of the mainly intact passage and to the surface. They looked around at the mess around them. Ben's heart sank. _Charlotte_ was gone. She'd never be seen again. Well, she'd be seen as a pile of broken wood and rigging, but nothing more. It was horrible.

" There's a small Inuit village about five miles east of here. It was popular with bush pilots." Ben said glancing around.

" Oh… Alright… Well… then what are we gonna do?" Riley asked.

" I'm gonna call Arabella and see if she could pick us up at the airport and figure out how to catch a plane home." Ben said as they climbed through the loose snow and rubble.

" No! I meant about Ian! He's gonna steal the Declaration of Independence, Ben!" Riley said stumbling and falling down a snow-bank. Ben turned to face him.

" We stop him." Ben said.

_**Arabella's Point of View**_

I was walking through the second floor of the American History Museum, and I stopped to look at the original Kermit the Frog puppet. I smiled at what was one of my favorite exhibits in the museum. I always loved the Muppets and they made me smile. I had just continued to keep walking when my phone rang. I quickly yanked it out of my pocket and looked at the caller ID, somehow managing to run out of the main exhibit area. I didn't know the number, but I was compelled to answer it.

" Hello?" I asked.

" Arabella." Came Ben's voice.

" Ben! How are-" I began.

" Arabella, I need to ask to you to pick Riley and I up at the airport in a few hours." Ben said. He sounded out of breath and in a panic.

" Okay, a few questions first. One: Who is Riley? Two: Did you find _Charlotte_? Three: Why do you sound like you just ran a marathon with a werewolf behind you?" I asked as I began to make my way towards the entrance of the museum.

" First answer: Riley is a friend of mine, he was my tech guy on the expedition. Second answer: I did find her. Third answer: Riley and I were almost killed in an explosion. We were betrayed." Ben said. I stood frozen in the middle of the lobby. Oh my God…

" Ben… I am _so_ picking you up at the airport! Okay, who betrayed you?" I asked with panic and worry in my voice.

" I'll explain when we get there. Just… _please_ be there when we come back." Ben said.

" Of course! I'll see you then I guess. I hope you have a _safe_ flight. And in all seriousness, _do not die._" I said. He chuckled.

" Don't worry, I won't." He said before hanging up. I shut my phone and stared at the grey-light filtering through the grey clouds and into the museum. Who would betray Ben? He was one of the hardest guys to hate- well… actually, if he made someone feel inferior, they'd probably have a grudge against him. But a big enough grudge to try and _kill_ him? Not likely. I walked back into the exhibits, towards the Star Spangled Banner. He found _Charlotte_. I was in shock. My best friend almost died, and the _Charlotte_ is real. I stared at the beautiful flag before me and sighed. It was going to be a long rest of the day.

OOOO

I was walking back to my apartment in the dimming light of day. I had gone to a convenience store and bought a few things to eat before I left to wait extensively at the airport. I was looking at the ground, nervous at the state Ben and his friend Riley would be in. Would they be bloody and bruised? Bandaged? I was fuming over the possibilities and didn't noticed I was walking towards someone till I ran smack-dab into their chest.

" Oh! I'm so sorry!" I said backing away to look at the man. He was maybe a few inches taller than eye and he hair blond hair and blue eyes. He smiled down at me.

" No problem at all, love." He said. He had an English accent. I nodded to him before I looked down and took a step forward, stumbling a bit. He stopped me by putting a hand on my arm. " Are you alright?" He asked. I nodded once.

" Yes. I'm just a bit clumsy at times. I'm sorry I ran into you. Have a good night." I said.

" Same to you." The man said before we both parted ways. I shook my head and thought something about that guy was kind of creepy. I walked a bit faster, trying to put as much distance between he and I.

OOOO

It was somewhere around five thirty in the morning when I saw on one of the monitors that Ben's flight had just arrived. I stood up and stretched, rubbing my eyes. I had gone home and gotten some sleep- about… six hours before I left around three twenty-two. I stood by the stairs I knew he and his friend, Riley, would be descending and waited. I waited rather impatiently and began to nervously twirl a strand of hair around my finger. I suddenly saw a familiar face.

I saw Ben's pale blue-grey eyes, his brown hair was brushed back, and he wore a brown coat that was zipped up, and he carried no baggage. He narrowed his eyes and searched the small crowd and when he spotted me he broke out into a smile. I quickly walked over before giving him a tight hug. I felt his arms wrap around me and I squeezed him tighter. I pulled back and he grinned at me. I grinned back and playfully punched his shoulder.

" Good to see you, Ben." I said.

" Good to see you too. You're looking well." He said putting his hands into his jeans pockets. I rolled my eyes and ran a hand through my hair. Of course he says that as if he forgot he told me he'd been close to exploded.

" I am. And you don't look like you were almost blown up." I commented. He chuckled slightly and that's when I noticed the man my age standing behind Ben.

He had short deep brown hair that was messy from the long plane ride, his had light blue eyes- well… they were more of a _bright_ light blue, he had a goatee, and he wore a thick sweater with a pair of glasses stuck in the neckline. He was a very good-looking guy. I didn't realize I was staring till he looked around himself before he noticed I was staring at _him_ and he waved at me slightly, a small blush creeping onto his pale cheeks. I blushed myself and looked down for a moment.

" Right!" Ben said turning so I could face the man I assumed was Riley. " Arabella this is Riley Poole, Riley Poole this is Arabella Fletcher."

" Nice to meet you." Riley said with a small smile, holding out his hand.

" Nice to meet you too." I said shaking his hand and smiling back. " You doing okay? Heard about the explosion."

" Yeah, I'm a bit shaken up still but I'll endure it. But Ian took my laptop…" Riley muttered mournfully. I glanced at Ben as if to say 'who's Ian?' but Ben put one hand on Riley's shoulder and his other hand on mine.

" I'll tell you all about it once we go back to your apartment?" Ben asked looking at me.

" Sounds good. I'll make you guys something to eat, because I know plane food isn't the best cuisine you could come by." I said leading them out to my car, not questioning what happened to their luggage.

" Yes! God, I thought I was going to die of starvation…" Riley said melodramatically. Ben and I laughed and I already knew I was gonna like this Riley guy. Who knows, we may bond through this and we may have things in common besides age. We all climbed into my car and I began to drive back towards my apartment, anxiously waiting to hear about what the Hell happened up in the Arctic Circle.

_**Afterword: There is the second chapter! Hope you enjoyed! NOW we're getting into the story! WOO! =D The next chapter could be up as soon as tomorrow and as late as tomorrow! REVIEWS ARE LOVED! Thanks!**_


	4. Chapter Three: Getting An Idea

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Three: Getting An Idea

On the way to my apartment Ben and I briefly caught up with each other and Riley seemed to have more fun poking around with the air conditioning in the back seat. When we got to my apartment, I unlocked my door and let Ben and Riley into my apartment before walking in as well and shutting the door.

" Make yourselves at home, I'll make you guys some eggs and what would you want to drink?" I asked.

" Water is fine with me." Ben said.

" Would you happen to have hot chocolate?" Riley asked with hope gleaming in his eyes.

" I most certainly have hot chocolate." I said with a smile. Riley grinned and plopped onto the couch. I smiled and went into the kitchen. I quickly got Ben his glass of water and then fixed Riley's hot chocolate. When I gave it to him, it became apparent he was still cold from being in the arctic. He gratefully took it with a rushed 'thank you' before pressing the hot mug to his cheek and he smiled, shutting his eyes.

I fixed us all some scrambled eggs with cheese before I sat down, handing them both a plate. Riley immediately began to eat.

" Riley, don't inhale it." Ben said. Riley rolled his eyes and said something with his mouth full. I giggled and he looked at me a moment before continuing to scarf down the eggs.

" What was she like, Ben? What was the _Charlotte_ like?" I asked. I had been picturing what it must have been like to see her. _The Charlotte_. The ship we'd been looking for. The one that Ben's dad said was a waste of time trying to find. And Ben and Riley _found_ it. I loved Ben's dad, he was like my second dad, but sometimes he was so closed-minded. Ben looked over at me and smiled.

" She was beautiful, Arabella. Better than we ever imagined." His smile faded and he shook his head. " I still don't understand why Ian had to blow it up…" He mumbled. My hand flew out and grabbed his shoulder.

" _That's_ what blew up? Someone blew up the _Charlotte_! Who! Okay, you start telling me what happened and start telling me _now_, Benjamin Franklin Gates." I said imploring Ben's full name. I heard Riley suppress laughter and I leaned back against the couch, waiting for Ben to proceed.

" Well, it started I met this guy named Ian Howe…"

OOOO

The whole story took till about seven forty nine to fully explain. Ben told me about Ian, and how, like me, he believed the treasure was real. He told me how he tracked down Riley, who was a computer genius. He interjected for about five minutes telling me how happy he was to be rid of his tiny office and go out on an actual adventure. And he smiled and took pride when he said he indeed _was_ a computer genius and that he'd show me some of his amazing computer skills once he got a new laptop and would somehow manage to recover his data. When I asked how he could do that if his other computer was completely lost, he said 'computer genius, duh!' I was really beginning to like him.

Ben told me about finding the _Charlotte_, and everything they found like the meerschaum pipe, the inscription, and then finally, Ian's betrayal and the explosion. I was frozen with shock when he ended the story. I couldn't believe that this Ian guy was _seriously_ going to try and steal the Declaration of Independence!

" He's serious about this plan?" I asked.

" Dead serious. Like… dead as a doornail serious." Riley said cleaning his glasses lenses.

" Riley's right, Ian wasn't joking. I think the explosion was the punctuation on his statement." Ben said.

" I'll say…" I muttered. I ran my hands through my hair, an apparently new nervous habit, and leaned back into my couch again.

" We need to stop him." I said.

" We already planned that out. We're going to tell the FBI about Ian's plan." Ben said.

" Great idea. I'm going with you. I want to bust this guy. And besides, if we can figure out a way to continue looking for the treasure, I'm so totally in." I said smiling at Ben. Ben smiled back and gave me a hug. I hugged back before pulling away.

" Thanks." He told me.

" Any time, Ben. I'll drive you two to your apartments so you can change." I told them.

" We'll meet up outside the J. Edgar Hoover building around eleven. Sound good?" Ben asked. Riley gave a nod and I nodded as well.

I drove Ben to his apartment, where I still knew where it was from when I visited a few times two years ago, and then looked over at Riley.

" Care to give me directions?" I asked.

" Uh… yeah. When you get to the intersection by the Washington Monument, keep going straight." Riley said. We drove a moment in silence. " So, you've known Ben for a while?" He asked.

" Yeah. We met in seventh grade- I'm assuming he might have told you about the whole 'I skipped two grades' thing, right?" I asked. If I knew Ben well, he _definitely _already told Riley.

" Yeah! You must be wicked smart!" Riley said. I blushed.

" Not really… I excel in history and English and I'm pretty good at science, but my math skills are less than impressive…" I muttered.

" You skipped two grades, Arabella. You were _eleven_ when you were in seventh grade. You're smart." He assured me.

" Well, you're probably smarter than me. I can only do the basics on computers. From what I heard from that story, you're pretty damn smart yourself." I said. Riley blushed a bit and looked down.

" I guess…" I said rubbing the back of his head. After an awkward silence and another direction from Riley, I steered the conversation away from myself.

" Ben is a really good guy. He was my only true friend since we met. He didn't care I was two years younger or that I was the loner for a while. He liked me because I was just myself. He's really good that way." I said.

" I know what you mean. For the last year I've known Ben, I've noticed the same thing. I'm just a… computer nerd and he doesn't seem to mind that. And to tell the truth, I think he's kinda got me hooked on this treasure thing." Riley admitted. I giggled and Riley looked at me again. Why did he keep doing that?

" Yeah, he tends to do that. His dad would insist he dragged you into it." I said looking over at him. I blushed when I noticed he was still looking at me. I looked back through the windshield. " So, where do I turn?" I asked.

" O-oh. Um… turn right. You can drop me off at the corner by the red van." Riley said. I turned right and pulled over to let Riley out.

" So, I'll see you around eleven then?" I asked with a smile.

" I'll see you around eleven so we can try and protect a very important document." Riley said as he popped the door open and smiled back a bit.

" It's arguable that it is _the_ most important document in American history." I said raising an eyebrow. Riley began to laugh.

" Yeah, you definitely would be friends with Ben." I raised my eyebrow, wondering if that was in insult or not. Catching my look Riley's eyes widened. " No, no, no! That's a good thing!" He corrected himself. I lightly elbowed him and laughed. " You're not so bad for a history geek." He said.

" You're not so bad for a computer genius." I said back. We both smiled before Riley waved and said 'goodbye' before he got out of the car and left. I turned back onto the street my mind began to race. The impact of what had actually happened just began to really hit me. Someone was going to try and steal the Declaration of Independence… if he succeeded, then who knows what would happen to it. It would probably be destroyed. I sighed and slammed on my breaks as I almost ran a red light. I shook my head and let out a breath. I shut my eyes for a brief second, clearing my head. I couldn't wait to catch this guy. The sooner, the better.

OOOO

Riley, Ben and I all exited the J. Edgar Hoover building, our heads hanging slightly. The FBI refused to file our claim because 'the Declaration of Independence is perfectly safe. No one can steal it.' And all other words basically pointed to them inadvertently saying 'you're crazy'.

" Is it _really_ so _hard_ to believe someone is going to steal the Declaration of Independence!" Riley asked in annoyance and we walked outside. He wore a grey suit jacket with a nice looking pair of grey pants and a white button down shirt and tie and his black Converse.

" The FBI gets 50,000 tips a week. They're not gonna worry about something they're _sure_ is safe." Ben said. He wore a white button down shirt with the top two buttons undone, a black suit jacket and nice pair blue jeans. I was wearing a nice white blouse with a pair of black pants and black ballet flats. My hair was pulled freshly washed so it fell in waves of loose curls again and let down so it hung around my shoulders.

Both Ben and Riley looked a little more awake and rested now that they were back home, but now the three of us were stressed. If the FBI wouldn't help, who would?

" But, anyone who can do anything will think we're crazy, and anyone crazy enough to _believe _us isn't gonna want to help." Riley said to Ben as we paused on the sidewalk. Ben and I exchanged a glance.

" We don't need someone crazy. But one step short of crazy." Ben said.

" What do you get?" I asked catching onto what Ben might be getting at. Riley thought a moment.

" Obsessed!" Riley stated with a small laugh. Ben gave him a look.

" Passionate." He corrected him.

A short while later we were sitting in the offices of the National Archives. I had to admit that Ben was pretty smart for thinking about coming here. I sat between Riley and Ben as we waited to see someone named Dr. Chase. Riley looked over and me and smiled.

" You look nice." Riley said quietly with what sounded like a bit of nervousness in his voice. I blushed and looked down.

" Thanks. So do you." I said. He nodded his thanks and we settled into an uncomfortable silence. I looked over a Ben to see him watching us with a slight smile.

" What?" I asked him.

" Oh, nothing." Ben said in a tone of voice that told me it wasn't nothing. I raised an eyebrow before his focus left me and towards something on a small table. He began to lean across us.

" Excuse me." He said. He grabbed a small pamphlet that read 'NATIONAL ARCHIVES ANNIVERSARY GALA'. Ben tilted his head and opened it up and began to read it. _What's he thinking now…_ I wondered as a look of thought crossed over his face. The door to Dr. Chase's office opened and the brunette secretary stepped out.

" Dr. Chase will see you now, Mr. Brown." She said with a too happy smile.

" Thank you." Ben said standing. Riley and I stood as well and Riley walked over to Ben with a confused look.

" Mr. Brown?" He inquired quietly.

" The family name doesn't get a lot of respect in the academic community." Ben told him in an equally quiet term.

" Huh. Being kept down by the man." Riley said as he smirked. We walked into the office and we all saw a blond woman sitting at the desk inside, a phone held up to her ear. She looked up at us, smiled a bit and held up a finger to say 'one second'. Ben and Riley froze and I ran into both of them. " A very _cute_ man…" Riley muttered. I rolled my eyes and poked the two of them in the centers of their backs.

" Thank you." Dr. Chase finished as she hung up. " Good afternoon gentlemen, miss." She said standing up.

" Hi." Riley said with a smile. She walked over to us and held out a hand to Ben.

" Abigail Chase." She introduced herself.

" Paul Brown." Ben said with a nod as he continued to stare at her. I had to suppress a smile. He hadn't stared at anyone like that since that girl he had a major crush on in senior year of high school.

" Nice to meet you." She said. I wedged my way between the men. I took Abigail's hand and smiled at her.

" Martha Jackson." I said. If we all hid our names then maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't be publicly humiliated if this got into the public. She smiled back at me and nodded and moved on to Riley, who seemed to be fumbling for a name as he shook her hand.

" Bill." He finally said. Abigail's eyebrows scrunched together at the uncertain tone of his voice.

" Nice to meet you… Bill." She said. " How can I help you?

" Oh, your accent!" Ben said with a smile. " Pennsylvania-Dutch?" He questioned. I looked over at him and smiled slightly. He was _flirting_ with her.

" Saxony-German." She corrected with a smile to him.

" Oh!" Ben said as he smiled again. Riley glanced at the two in confusion. Ben had an odd way of flirting, and he had obviously taken a liking to Abigail. She was very pretty- beautiful even. Her blond hair was pulled back and she had blue eyes the color of the sky, similar to the color my eyes were.

" You're not… American?" Riley asked.

" Oh, I am an American. I just wasn't born here. Please don't touch that!" Abigail said to Ben, who was looking at a button collection. He looked over, his hand almost touching one. I walked over to take a look at them myself. They were George Washington's campaign buttons. It was amazing! She was only missing _one_. I smiled. One of the best collections I'd seen.

" Sorry. Neat collection! George Washington's campaign buttons! You're missing the uh, seventeen eighty-nine inaugural though." Ben said gently tapping a blank spot on the display.

" He found one once. He loves to brag about it." I said.

" That's very fortunate for him. Now, you told my assistant this was an urgent matter?" She questioned as we all congregated towards the chairs in front of her desk.

" Yes, ma'am." Ben said sitting. " Let me get right to the point." He looked Abigail directly in the eyes. " Someone's gonna steal the Declaration of Independence. Abigail's slight smile was gone. She looked at me and I nodded. She looked at Riley.

" It's true." Riley told her. She grabbed her phone.

" I think I should put you three in touch with the FBI-"

" We've already been to the FBI." I told her.

" And?" Abigail asked.

" And they assured us that the Declaration could not possibly be stolen." Riley said in a monotone, which I was beginning to think was a signature way of talking for him.

" They're right." She confirmed.

" My friends and I are not so certain. However, if we were given the privilege of examining the document," Abigail tilted her head with a look on her face that said '_oh, this is a joke isn't it?_' " We'd be able to tell you for certain if it were in any danger." Ben assured her. She leaned back in her chair with a shake of her head.

" What do you think you're going to find?" She asked. _Come on, Ben, don't screw this up…_ I thought and by the look on Riley's face he was thinking the same thing.

" We believe that there's an… _encryption_ on the back." Ben stated trying to pick the best words.

" An encryption like a… code?" Abigail inquired.

" Yes, ma'am." He said.

" Like what?" She asked again. Ben and I exchanged a glance and I pleaded him with my eyes not to mess up.

" A… cartograph." He said.

" A map?"  
>" Yes, ma'am." He repeated.<p>

" A map of _what_?" She asked. Riley fidgeted nervously as he stared at his feet. We could both tell this wasn't going too well… Ben took a moment to think.

" The location of… of…" He cleared his throat nervously. " Of hidden items. Items of historic and intrinsic value." Ben finished. Abigail looked down and shook her head a few times, as if disbelieving what Ben had just said.

" A _treasure_ map?" She asked with disbelief.

" And _that's_ where we lost the FBI…" I trailed off with a sigh.

" You're treasure hunters aren't you?" She asked. Riley shifted and looked at Ben and so did I. Truth was, yes. Yes we were.

" We're more like… treasure protectors." Ben corrected. That was true as well.

" Mr. Brown, I have _personally_ seen the back of the Declaration of Independence, and I _promise_ you that the only thing on there is a notation that reads, 'Original Declaration of Independence,' dated-"

" The fourth of July, seventeen seventy six." Ben and I finished.

" Yes, ma'am." Ben said.

" But no map." Abigail assured him with a small smile. She clearly didn't seem to care for us. Riley glanced at Ben from the corner of his eyes. I shut my eyes and sighed. Ben looked over at us and Riley shook his head as if to say 'no. Don't go there.' Ben considered if for a moment before I couldn't take it anymore.

" Its invisible." I stated.

" Oh!" Abigail said in a hushed tone, leaning against her desk. " Right!"

" And that's where we lost the department of homeland security…" Riley muttered. I shot him a look. They must have called them before they came back to D.C.

" What led you to assume that there is this invisible map?" She asked with curiosity.

" We found an engraving on the stem of a two hundred year old pipe." Ben told her.

" Made by the Free Masons." Riley interjected. Abigail nodded, her interest had been clearly sparked in her eyes again.

" May I see the pipe?" She asked. Ben sighed.

" We don't have it." Riley told her. She leaned forward, a teasing glint in her eyes. She was now on the road to amuse herself by teasing us.

" Did Bigfoot take it?" She chided.

" It was nice meeting you." Ben said standing. She glanced up at him.

" Nice to meet you too." She said leaning back into her chair again. Riley and I stood and I ran a hand through my hair again. I _need_ to stop doing that! Ben looked at the button collection again and I saw an idea form on his face.

" You know, that really is a nice collection." He told her. " It must have taken you a long time to track down all that history." And with that thought hanging in the air, we left. We stayed silent as we walked out of the office and headed back down to the actual Archives and began to walk towards the Declaration. The room was huge with documents in special display cases, large paintings on the walls and marble floors.

" If it's any consolation, you had _me_ convinced!" Riley said, trying to cheer Ben up.

" It's not." Ben said adopting Riley's monotone. Riley sighed and shook his head.

" What if we went public?" Riley suggested. " Plaster this story all over the internet?" Wasn't that bad of an idea… there were always conspiracy theories on the web. " Its not like we have our reputations to worry about."

" Arabella works at the Smithsonian, she has a reputation to uphold." Ben muttered. I gave him a look and slapped his back. " Ow!" He said looking at me.

" I told you all those years ago I wouldn't care if people thought I was crazy. And that lady kinda just implied we were _insane_. If I loose my job, oh well. We're finding this treasure. I don't care what it takes. We'll find it." I told Ben. A tiny, almost microscopic smile made its way onto his face.

" Thanks." He said as the three of us looked down and the Declaration. It was yellowed and browned and the old handwriting was faded. I smiled as I looked down at it. It looked so fragile. The fact that anyone would risk destroying it was like a living nightmare.

" Although, I don't think putting it on the internet will exactly scare Ian away…" Riley muttered. Ben was staring intently at the Declaration.

" One hundred and eighty years of searching, and I'm standing three feet away…" Ben quietly said. He looked at Riley. " Out of all the ideas that became the United States, there's one here that's the heart of all the others." Riley crossed his arms and listened with interest. "_But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government and provide new guards for their future security._" Ben said with a truckload of emotion in his voice. " People don't talk that way anymore."

" It's beautiful." Riley admitted in a daze. I looked over at him and saw the look of awe on his face. " I have _no_ idea what you said."

" It means that if there's something wrong, we have the ability to take action and the responsibility to take action." Ben said. There was a tense and thoughtful pause as we all thought and stared at the document. " I'm gonna steal it…" He muttered. Riley and I stared at him in shock at what we just heard. Riley laughed a bit, thinking he was joking. His face then went dead calm.

" I'm sorry, what?" He asked.

" I'm gonna steal the Declaration of Independence…" Ben muttered before starting to walk towards the doors of the building. Riley did a _triple_ take, looking at me, then the Declaration then to Ben. He laughed for a moment before going serious again.

" Uh… Ben?" Riley asked as we both began to run after him.

_**Afterword: AND CHAPTER THREE IS DOOOOOONE! WOO! It feels SO GOOD to finally be writing this! Ahhhhh, yes in this chapter we see that Riley and Arabella are beginning to maybe like each other! =D And thank you to Phillipfan24 for reviewing! I love the name Arabella too- I found out that its Scottish and means 'Loving'. =D Hope you all enjoyed the story! Reviews are loved! I hope to get the next chapter up soon! Thanks!**_


	5. Chapter Four: Preparing For Madness

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Four: Preparing For Madness

" Ben! This is _crazy_! Aren't we supposed to _protect _the Declaration!" I asked in a shock as Riley and I finally caught up with Ben.

" Look-" Ben began.

" No! This will never work!" Riley said.

" I agree!" I said putting a hand on Riley's shoulder.

" Look. At least let me _explain_ okay?" Ben pleaded. After a tense moment, I nodded.

" Fine. C'mon lets go some where that people won't mind us." I said as we headed towards the street. Riley informed us that he had driven here in his van, so we could use that to get to our destination. His van was red, with only two seats, a driver's seat and a passenger's seat. Riley yanked the side door open and slid it back, allowing me to step inside, before shutting it again. I felt my jaw drop as I stared at all the electric cables, blank computer monitors, and various other electronic things I couldn't identify.

" Everyone ready?" Riley asked, looking back at me. He was in the driver's seat and he was starting the ignition. I nodded.

" What is this stuff?" I asked. Riley shrugged.

" Various electronic odds and ends that can come in handy at any given time." Riley explained. Ben turned around in the passengers seat and looked at me.

" You might wanna hold onto the seat." He said. I gripped the side of his seat as Riley quickly drove onto the street.

" Whoa!" I said nearly falling over. " A little eager, aren't you, speedy?" I joked.

" Just wanna get where ever we're going quick so I can smack some sense into Ben here! You make stealing the Declaration sound like it's one of the simplest things on earth!" Riley groaned. Ben rolled his eyes. " Where to?" Riley asked after a moment.

OOOO

We walked up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Ben decided that one of the most public places _ever_ was the best place to talk about stealing a document of major importance. I looked up and saw Abraham Lincoln's somber face staring out at D.C. It had always been one of my favorite memorials. I loved how large the scale of the whole thing was, and the great view of the reflecting pool and the Washington Monument. Today, however, the crowd wasn't as big.

I vaguely registered Riley grumbling under his breath. I caught some comments about something being majorly illegal and also something about jail. Towards the top of the mountain of stairs, Ben stopped and Riley sat down, resting his arms on his knees. Ben stood facing him, and I stood beside him. Riley was staring forlornly into space.

" This is… huge. _Prison_ huge… you _ARE_ going to go to prison, you _do_ know that?" Riley said looking over at Ben. Ben hooked his thumbs into his jeans pocket and looked down at Riley.

" Yeah. Probably." Ben admitted. I shut my eyes and shook my head. Ben was _honestly_ beginning to go crazy. Riley and I might as well kidnap him and throw him in a dark closet till he's sane.

" That would… bother most people." Riley said. He sounded like he was beginning to be bothered by how Ben seemed in no way at all concerned.

" Ian's going to try and steal it. And if he succeeds, then he'll _destroy _the Declaration." Ben said with a hint of anger in his voice.

" That is true…" I muttered. Riley looked up at me like 'no duh, but it's still a stupid plan'.

" The fact is, the only way to protect the Declaration, _is_ to steal it!" Ben said. " It's upside down." He sat beside Riley and looked at him. " I don't think there's a choice." I began to think about what Ben was saying. He was right. It _was_ upside down. If what Ben told me about Ian was true, then this guy could seriously be planning on the Declaration. And he may succeed. I bit my lip, shut my eyes, and sighed.

" I hate to admit this… but… I'm with Ben on this one. If Ian did steal it, then he obviously is stupid and has no knowledge of how to examine a historical document, and he'll destroy it." I said. Riley sputtered.

" Arabella, Ben, for _God's_ sakes!" Riley said standing. He began to gesture randomly around him. " It's like… it's like trying to steal a _national monument_." He gestured to the Washington Monument. " Okay? It's like stealing _him_!" Riley pointed to the statue of Abraham Lincoln. " It can't be done! Not 'it shouldn't be done', it _CAN'T_ be done! Let me prove it to you two." Riley said with a smirk to the both of us. Ben and I glanced at each other and shrugged.

" Go ahead, Riley." I said.

" Great! C'mon. I'll drive us there!" Riley said in a suddenly smugly happy mood.

OOOO

The Library of Congress. Riley drove us to the Library of Congress and we got clearance to go inside the researching room. The ceiling was an ornately decorated dome that was gold and had a mural towards the very top where another dome formed and a few windows were letting in light. There were arches that held stained glass windows in place and there were floor up floors of books. Riley had us sit while he told a worker what books he wanted. Ben and I sat next to each other at a desk in a ring of large desks.

A lamp was turned on and we waited as Riley received his materials and pulled out his glasses. They were square framed and when he slid them on, it made him even cuter. I stared at him for a while as he searched through the books and papers but Ben cleared his throat and nudged my shoulder with his. I blushed and looked at him before looking down at my hands, becoming suddenly interested in my fingernails. Riley began to put papers out in front of us, trying to become more organized. Ben looked at them briefly, then grabbed a book and flipped through it, finding something and setting it aside.

" Okay, Ben, Arabella, pay attention. I've brought you to the Library of Congress. Why? Because it's the larges library in the world. Over twenty million books. And they're all saying the exact same thing. _Listen_ to Riley." Riley said in a hushed tone. He directed that all towards Ben.

Ben looked up at him and leaned back in his chair. I leaned forward against the desk, still trying not to look at Riley to closely, in fear of staring at him again. I had only just met the guy and I was acting like an eighth grader with a crush on some hot guy. Something in my head told me maybe I _did_ have a crush on Riley, but I shook the thought out of my head. I just met him… I couldn't like him… right?

" What we have here my friends, is an _entire_ layout of the archives." He began to hold up papers to us. " Builders blue prints, you've got uh… construction orders. Phone lines. Water and sewage. It's all here." He pulled up a book and held it out in front of him, open towards us so we could see a picture of the archives.

" Now, when the Declaration is on display, it's surrounded by guards, and video monitors, and little families from Iowa, and little kids on their eighth grade field trip. And underneath an inch of bulletproof glass, an army of sensors and heat monitors, go off if anyone gets too close with a high fever. Now," Riley flipped the page to another section. " When the Declaration is _not_ on display, it is lowered into a _four foot thick, concrete steal plated vault_, that happens to be equipped with an electronic combination lock and biometric access denial systems." Riley said finishing his explanation of how Ben's plan was not possible.

" Damn…" I muttered. Maybe this _was_ impossible…

" Did you know that Thomas Edison tried and failed two thousand times to develop the carbonized cotton thread filament in the incandescent light bulb?" Ben asked. Riley looked at him confused, but I suddenly knew what Ben meant. He said that quote whenever he came up with something someone thought impossible.

" Edison?" Riley asked.

" And when asked about it, he said 'I didn't fail. I found two thousand ways how _not_ to make a light bulb.' But he only needed one way to make it work." Ben pulled the book he had been looking at earlier over, and set it in front of Riley. " The preservation room. Enjoy, go ahead." He gestured towards the book. Riley cautiously looked at him and pulled the book towards him. I looked at Ben.

" How did you think of this?" I asked him. He shrugged.

" Extra credit in history class from high school?" He said with a smirk. He clasped his hands and looked at Riley as he sat down across from us. " Do you know what the preservation room is?"

" Delicious jams and jellies?" Riley asked. I snickered and covered my mouth to prevent myself from laughing. Riley looked up at me before looking at Ben with an eyebrow raised and looking back down at the book.

" No. That is where the clean, repair and maintain all the documents and the storage housings when they're not on display or in the vault. Now, when the _case_ needs work, it comes out of the vault, directly across the hall, and into the preservation room. The best time for us or _Ian_ to steal it, would being during the Gala this weekend, when the guards are distracted by the VIP's upstairs and we'll make our way down to the preservation room, where there's much less security." Ben told us as he leaned back in his seat, content with his explanation.

" Pure genius." I said, now beginning to feel a little more confident about this plan.

" Huh. Well, if Ian… uh… um… preservation… humph… the Gala…" Riley muttered while flipping through the pages of the book. He looked up at us. " This might be possible." He told us. Ben smirked.

" It might." Ben said. Riley shut his book and shook his head muttering,

" I can't believe I'm doing this…" I looked up at him.

" Trust me, neither can I." I said to him. Ben rolled his eyes. I noticed one problem about the Gala. The only people invited were employees and people who gave large donations.

" Come on. Let's get out of here so we could plan how to _get into the Gala_." I said.

" I agree with Arabella. That will need some work." Riley said pointing to me.

" Then let's return these books and go talk." Ben said. Together we organized the papers and books, before having them returned and leaving for Riley's van.

We went to Ben's apartment, which was larger then mine, and besides, he lived closer to a pizza place and we'd be needing dinner. Riley and I sat on Ben's couch as he searched for the pizza place's number.

" Who wants what on the pizza?" He asked.

" I'm fine with whatever. But preferably pepperoni." I told him. He looked at Riley.

" I enjoy pepperoni." He told him. Ben nodded and went to go place our order. Riley looked over at me as he straightened his glasses. " So. Do usually help Ben plan illegal heists?" I laughed and ran a hand through my messy hair.

" No. This is the first and hopefully the _last_. I just pray I don't get arrested. I actually want to live my life outside of a solitary confinement room. I don't think I'd be able to escape like they did in The Shawshank Redemption." I joked. Riley laughed as he yanked his tie off.

" I don't think so too." He said. He pulled a laptop from his backpack, which he had in his car.

" Have you retrieved all of your old info from your other laptop?" I asked curiously.

" Mm-hm. Wanna know… how?' He asked nervously. I smiled and nodded.

" Sure. Talk away." I told him, crossing my legs and turning to face him. He smiled and began to tell me how he retrieved all the old data from his lost laptop.

OOOO

I was truly shocked that Riley could do all of that stuff with a computer. He blushed a lot at the shocked look on my face, and mostly stared at the screen of his laptop. Once the pizza arrived, and Riley finished his story, we began to plan out what we were going to do to get into the Gala.

" Okay. We can't get into the Gala unless we work at the archives, which we don't, or if we make a major donation, which we can't." I said.

" Who else can get into it? Security guards can, but I doubt any one of us could pass as a guard." Riley said.

" That's true. You look too nice to be a security guard." I said. Riley's cheeks turned a slight pink as he ran a hand through his hair, causing it to become messy. Ben chuckled. " What? It's true." I said.

" It is." Ben agreed. " I think that maybe a janitor may be able to get in." I stared at him.

" Why didn't I think about that?" I muttered. Ben shrugged.

" So, Ben you're going to some how manage get in as a janitor? Don't they have ID passes?" Riley asked.

" Already thought about that. I have a good quality camera that I could take a picture of one of the passes, replace the picture and get a uniform and I'm good." Ben said. " But I might need some help with getting into the security access areas."

" Ben, this is an area I might be able to help with." I told him with a smirk. " Okay, so you know Abigail Chase?" I asked. He looked at me and nodded, clearly interested. " Why don't we just figure out how to get her fingerprint and password to get in?" I asked.

" That… that's a good idea." Riley interjected. " But how do we get the password and fingerprint?"

" Champaign glass for the fingerprint. Now, there's a solution you can make that lights up under a black light. If we figure out a way to get that on Abigail's fingers and we figure out how to get the Declaration into the preservation room, she'll obviously get called down, and when she types on the keyboard, the solution will be left there." I said.

" Genius." Riley muttered, typing down all of our already made plans.

" I know how we can do that…" Ben muttered. He stood up, walked off, and came back holding something I recognized. His George Washington campaign button. " If we can dip this in that solution and get this to her, it might just work."

" So now I'll interject with my solution." Riley said. " I'll hack into the Archive security monitors so you won't be seen when you go all ninja on us. And to get the Declaration into the preservation room, all we need is a laser pointer and a camera." Riley smirked.

" Well then, looks like we have a plan." I said holding up my hands for high-fives. Riley gave me an enthusiastic one and Ben gave me one with the same energy.

" Arabella, I'm going to have you come with me for the first half of the Gala so I don't mess any of the fingerprint stuff up. Then you'll go and help Riley in the van." Ben told me.

" Sounds good." I said with a smile.

" And you'll go with him tomorrow to do all of the technical stuff." Ben said. I nodded.

" Well, guys, it looks like we are about to become criminals." Riley said in a monotone as he bit into his slice of pizza. Tomorrow was going to be an exciting day.

_**Afterword: Hope you enjoyed it! Alsooooooo HAPPY HOLIDAYS! =D Hope it'll be all happy and fun for you all! THIS CHAPTER IS MY PRESENT TO YOU ALL! =D Okay, I also must apologize for any spelling or other errors. I almost fell off the horse I was riding yesterday, and I pulled some muscles in my left shoulder, so I'm typing with a sling on. Thank you for reading! REVIEWS WOULD BE AN AWESOME PRESENT! =D Next chapter will be up soon!**_


	6. Chapter Five: Our Evil Plan Is Working

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Five: Our Evil Plan Is Working

The next morning was the start of our devious and very stupid plan. I had just finished eating breakfast and got a call from Riley. He was headed over to pick me up so we could go hack into the Archive security video cameras then go do some clever stuff with a video camera and laser pointer to get the Declaration into the preservation room. I was dressed in a nice plaid flannel button down shirt with skinny jeans and a pair of my favorite converse (yes, I have more then one pair. Three to be exact. What can I say? They're comfortable!). I sat down on my couch and ran a hand through my hair. I realized that it was all messed up and remembered Riley coming, and fixed it. I froze half way through wrapping a curl around my finger.

There I go again.

Every time I thought about him, I began to panic a bit. It wasn't bad kind of panic; it was an exciting kind of panic. The kind of panic you get on your birthday just before you open your gifts. I looked at myself in the mirror and let out a breath. I knew there was a good possibility I was actually falling for him. But half of my brain told me it was, well… all in my head. And for the moment, I was listening to that half of my brain. We were trying to pull off a very dangerous and very stupid plan. Focus on that, and I'll be fine.

I looked out the window. When I was little, I already knew that I would live in D.C. and I always hoped I'd work in a museum. I know it sounds weird for a little kid to think that- all obsessed with history and that. But I never had been a 'normal kid'. I skipped two grades. I was never the 'pretty girl' because I didn't wear what everyone else was, and I wasn't all that skinny. I'm still not all that skinny- I can't fit into size ten jeans. I'm a size twelve. I know that isn't bad, but I had been teased about it my whole life, so I never saw that as a normal thing. Those feelings still stick in the back of my mind.

In high school, Riley would have been the guy I liked who would end up going out with my friend. He would never look my way. So, that must be it. He obviously has better options then me in the world, so he does _not_ like me. All the staring and blushing is in my head. Solution made.

There was a knock on my door just as I snapped out of my thoughts. I ran to the door and opened it, smiling at Riley, who stood in the hall.

" Hey." He said casually smiling a bit. " Ready to go?"

" Yup! Let's go do tech-y stuff." I said walking into the hall as I shut the door, locking it. We began to walk down the hall.

" Maybe you'll even pick a few things up." Riley said. I laughed as I put my hands in my pocket, shaking my head.

" Not likely." I admitted, rubbing the back of my head. Riley chuckled. I smacked his chest.

" Ow…" He mumbled.

" Don't laugh! Computers just don't like me…" I said quietly.

" I could help you make computers not hate you." Riley offered.

" You would be a miracle worker if you could." I said with a smile. He smiled back as we got into the elevator.

We got into his van and began to drive. Riley turned on the radio and began to hum to a song as he focused on the street. He pulled over on the side of the road near a park. He climbed into the back of the van.

" Gimme a hand?" He asked holding a backpack out to me. I grabbed it as he grabbed a larger brown duffle bag. He straightened out his tan jacket and slid the door open. I jumped out of the passenger side door. Riley gestured to the escalators that led down to the subway. I shouldered the backpack and followed him. We both acted casual as we descended.

" So, why are we at a subway?" I asked. Riley slid his glasses on.

" It is the easiest place to access city cable lines. If I did my research correctly last night… I know which cable is used by the city to help support the security video system at the Archives… so… yeah. Best place. The Archive is also only a few blocks away from here. Makes it easier." Riley explained with a nod, a distant look on his face as he did so, and I guessed that was his calculating face. The look stayed and I looked around as we neared the bottom of the escalator. I waved my hand in front of his face. He jumped and nearly slipped off his stair. I rolled my eyes and we stepped off the escalator.

We found a room off the side that was clearly marked 'EMPLOYEES ONLY'. We snuck inside, a train rushing past us and Riley quickly shut the door. He looked around the room.

" Okay… so… wires would obviously be protected where…" He spotted a pole in the center of the room. " There we go." He said walking over. He set his duffle bag down and grabbed the backpack and I slid it off my back. He pulled his laptop out of the bag and set it on the top of what looked like a giant wooden spindle that was used to coil large wires around it. He began to set up a whole bunch of electronic stuff and I watched from the side, feeling a bit useless. He pulled out a small saw and turned it on. He carved a small hole in the pipe, and poked the piece out. He blew the metal shavings away and pulled up a chair to sit down in. He looked up at me as he opened his laptop.

" Okay, I want you to slide this up into the pole. It has a camera and a light and a clamp on it. I'll be able to see where the cable is and I can control the clamp with this." Riley said pulling out what looked like a joystick. I nodded. He handed me the cable with the camera, clamp and light on it.

" Okay, lets hope this doesn't fail…" I muttered and walked over to the pole. I carefully slid the cable inside and gently began to push it upward. I looked down at Riley. " Am I doing this right?"

" Yeah! Yeah, you're doing fine! Just keep going." Riley assured me, staring at the screen. I could feel my hand shaking. I didn't want to mess this up. " Okay… hold up a second…" I stopped. " Never mind. Keep moving." I continued to move it upwards. " Stop! Hold it! Okay… hold steady…" Riley said moving the joystick around. " There you are…" Riley mumbled. He smiled. " Hello." He used the clamp and grabbed onto the wire. He clicked a few things and a screen of the vault hallway appeared. Riley clicked on something and recorded the empty hall. He clipped the clamp onto a different wire, and an empty preservation room popped up. " That's what I want." He recorded a few seconds of that as well.

" We good on all this?" I asked. Riley set something down and smiled up at me.

" We most definitely are." He said with relief clear in his voice. We quickly packed up, covered up the hole in the pole and we made a quick exit. We ran back to the van, jumped into the back and sat down in the back.

" I can't believe we're doing this…" I said.

" Neither can I." Riley said setting his laptop up again.

" I mean, I know this is technically the right thing to do… but… it still feels _so_ wrong…" I said resting my chin in my hand as I sat down beside Riley. It felt so weird. So wrong. If only the FBI had believed this, we wouldn't be becoming countrywide criminals. He looked over at me briefly before sighing.

" It does feel that way… This'll be a story to tell someday, won't it?" He asked.

" Most definitely." I replied.

" I think Ben has pulled us into a dangerous web of illegal plans. No, I _know_ he has. And at the moment, I am the awesome computer hacker…" Riley pulled up his videos again, and smiled again seeing he still had access to the camera in the Archive. " Game on."

OOOO

Riley and I drove to the Archives and parked outside. He grabbed a laser pointer and nudged my shoulder. He smiled at me.

" Check this out." He pointed the laser at the thermometer in the back of his van. He clicked it on and we watched as the temperature rose.

" Cool…" We both muttered. I smiled.

" This could work." I said with a nod.

" Let's get moving then!" Riley said attaching the laser pointer to a camera. We walked across the street and into the Archives.

" So, how will we be inconspicuous?" I asked as we looked around.

" Act like a couple on vacation to the nation's capital." Riley said. He carefully and hesitantly took my hand. I blushed and looked down at our converse clad feet and we began to walk around. We attempted to look like tourists, but I was pretty sure we didn't look like tourists.

" I don't think this is working…" I said.

" The tourist part or the couple part?" He asked holding up the video camera momentarily.

" Both." I told him. He shrugged and wrapped his arm around my shoulders pulling me into his side I blushed and tried to act relatively normal. I pointed across the room and Riley aimed the camera in that direction. _Now_ we were kind of succeeding. We watched as old woman leaned over to look at the Declaration. Riley quickly aimed his camera in that direction and pressed the laser pointer button. We waited patiently, hoping we hit one of the sensors. After a moment, a pair of guards brought the old woman away from the Declaration. I grinned at Riley.

" We did it." I said in shock. He grinned back and in a move than I think surprised us both, he hugged me tightly. I hugged back before we both rushed out of the Archives.

Back in the van, Riley and I sat in the back, watching the video feed of the vault hallway and the preservation room. Riley was munching on some trail mix and I stole some from him. He rolled his eyes, grabbed my hand and poured some into my palm. His hand was a bit bigger than mine, and was warm as well. He had a few calluses on his fingertips from typing on his keyboards, but overall, his hands were actually kind of soft.

" Thanks." I said pulling my hand away as I began to munch on a small pretzel.

" Anytime." He said zipping up a blue sweatshirt, which he brought to change into. We saw a group of people carefully moving the Declaration from the vault, towards the preservation room. And we also saw a blond woman I recognized as Abigail.

" Our evil plan is working…" Riley muttered with a shocked smirk and a slight shake of his head.

" I say we go see Ben again. I kind of need to get disguised as a janitor as well as get a fancy party outfit… fun…." I said with a sigh. Parties were not my thing. I felt my mood dampen. Riley chuckled, shutting his laptop.

" Let's go then, Miss Grumpy Pants." Riley snickered. I glared a him as we climbed into the front seats.

" Parties are not my thing, okay? They remind me of prom, and my prom was not the best time for me." I said buckling my seat belt and looking out of the window.

" Neither was mine. My date blew me off five minutes before I was supposed to pick her up." Riley told me.

" I didn't get a date. I sat there on the side of the room the whole night. Girls laughed at me because I had brought a book to read. Ben didn't go because he was sick. I ended up going home early. Not one speck of fun there." I muttered so quietly, I was sure Riley didn't hear.

" I'm sorry to hear that." Riley said. I shut my eyes.

" It's fine. It was a while ago. I guess I'm just still sensitive to it…" I told him. " I'll try to be in a better mood, I promise." I laughed a bit. Riley smiled a bit as he drove us towards Ben's apartment.

On the way there, Riley and I shared stories about crazy things that happened to us- I told him about my crazy neighbor's equally crazy dog who tried to bite my neck once in the middle of winter. Riley told me about the explosion of the _Charlotte_ again. I was still amazed he and Ben survived. Riley was an extremely likable guy. Some people might think he was nerdy or whiny, but I didn't think that those things mattered- I think those things made him loveable. No- _likable_. Not loveable. Likeable… just… likeable…

When we got to Ben's, we ran inside, and before we could knock on the door, Ben opened it, and urged us inside.

" Hey, guys, did it work?" He asked.

" Oh, it worked alright." Riley said.

" Good. 'Cause we've got a Gala to go to." Ben said tossing me a plastic bag. I clumsily caught it. I stared at it warily.

" What's in this?" I asked.

" A dress and a janitor's outfit and badge and various other janitorial things." Ben told me. I peered inside.

" You got me a dress? How did you even find out what size I wear?" I asked in confusion.

" I still have a key to your apartment, so I briefly snuck inside and checked a dress in you closet." Ben admitted. I rolled my eyes.

" You could have just asked." I told him. He went to explain further, but I held up a hand. " I'm just going to go get dressed."

" Oh, and some of your make up is in there!" Ben called after me. I gave him a thumbs up before disappearing into the bathroom.

I locked the door and pulled the dress out of the bag. It was ankle length and a pale pearly cream color. It was a halter-top and had a blue sash around the waist. Close to the bottom, small beads created looping patterns and it sparkled in the light. I stared at it for a moment. Ben did a fairly good job picking out the dress.

" Here goes nothing…" I muttered. I got redressed into the dress and it took me a while to figure out how to wear the janitor's uniform on over it. Once I got that figured out, I pulled my hair into a high ponytail and put on a very, very, very subtle amount of makeup on- just eye-makeup and some lipstick. I put on some ballet flats and exited Ben's bathroom.

Ben was wearing a similar ensemble as I was- a blue jumpsuit with a belt of janitorial supplies and an ID card, which he altered for both of us.

" Okay, let's get to this Gala, it's REALLY uncomfortable in this thing…" I muttered.

" Then lets go." Ben said with a smile.

We jumped into the van and I sighed as we sped down the street.

" I hope this works…" I muttered. " If it doesn't… well… we're doomed."

" I hope this works too." Ben said.

" As do I." Riley joined in. We pulled up to the Archives and saw the groups of people making their way inside. I shut my eyes and groaned. I had a feeling it would be a long night.

_**Afterword: Hope you enjoyed it! I tried to bring in a few of Arabella's insecurities- the fact she doesn't feel pretty and that she thinks that no guy would ever like her. Poor Arabella, she's also doesn't know if she likes Riley or not. But we all know she does XD So, since I'm on vacation, I'll be able to write more! AND I'M NO LONGER IN A SLING! Hopefully some of the spelling errors are gone. I hope. Well, the next chapter will be up soon soon soon! REVIEWS HAVE BEEN LOVED AND WILL STILL BE LOVED! Thanks!**_


	7. Chapter Six: With Targets On Our Backs

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Six: With Targets On Our Backs

" Put these in your ears. They're discrete earpieces so I can talk to you. Oh, and here are some tiny microphones so you can talk to me." Riley said handing Ben and I each a pair. I slid the tiny earpiece into my ear and then clipped the microphone onto the inside of my 'uniform' collar. Ben looked at me.

" Ready?" He asked.

" As I'll ever be…" I muttered. I had been riding in the back again, so Riley and Ben climbed into the back of the van and I slid the door open. Ben and I hopped out as Riley began to pull a headset on.

" Ben, are you sure that we should-" Riley began to ask but was cut off by Ben closing the door.

" Does this thing work?" I asked, hoping the microphone picked it up.

" I can hear you, so yeah, it does." Riley said. I rolled my eyes. Ben and I began to walk across the street, and Ben pressed a finger to his ear, adjusting his earpiece.

" Riley, can you hear me?" Ben asked.

" Unfortunately, yeah." Riley deadpanned. I giggled and Ben rolled his eyes as we crossed the wet street. " We're all set in here." We came towards a side door, obviously used for workers and such. A guard stood outside, talking to two people, giving them directions. As we walked up to the guard, we smiled and showed him our ID cards, which were clipped to our uniforms and he nodded and gestured inside. As we entered the door, we stopped at the metal detectors and x-ray belt things. We each removed our utility belts and set them on the belt. We each walked through, grabbed our belts and made our way towards the bathrooms. Ben tapped my shoulder and I looked at him.

" I also took some of your shoes from your house and left them in a bag outside of the women's bathroom." Ben admitted.

" Thanks. I'm not sure I want you having that key anymore… cause if the shoes are gone, you're buying me a new pair." I told him before we each parted to the separate bathrooms. My shoes had been tucked in a small corner, surprisingly untouched. I grabbed them and went into the bathroom. I made sure no one else was in the bathroom and then removed the jumpsuit, tossing it into the trash. I readjusted the microphone so it was hidden again. I quickly tied the halter back around my neck, straightened out the skirt and back and then put on the white heels Ben picked our of my closet. I slid them on with a sigh, seeing as they were a bit tight. I hadn't worn those shoes in years. I pulled my hair down, fixed it so it fell around my shoulders and looked in the mirror. I had thankfully not taken off my necklace with a blue pendant on the end of it, so the outfit was fairly good.

" Ben, how do you look?" I heard Riley ask.

" Not bad." I heard Ben say.

" Mozeltov." Riley said. I exited the bathroom just as Ben walked out of the men's bathroom, dressed in a tuxedo I didn't know he owned. He stopped and looked at me.

" You look really nice." He told me. I blushed.

" Thanks. Come on, let's just get this over with." I said gesturing towards the party. Together we walked out, and as we passed a serving man, I took a glass of Champaign, and Ben took two. I shook my head. We searched the crowd for Abigail and Ben didn't even say when he saw her, he just walked away. I had to half jog in order to keep up. We walked up behind her.

" For you." Ben said. Abigail spun around and looked down at the Champaign Ben was offering her.

" Oh! Miss Jackson, Mr. Brown. What are you doing here?" She asked taking the Champaign.

" Is that that hot girl? How does she look?" Riley asked. I shut my eyes in annoyance and opened them again, Ben and I ignoring him.

" I made a last minute donation, a pretty big one." Ben lied with a nod. Abigail looked at me.

" So did I. Paul and I have known each other for a long time, and are both very big supporters of the Archives." I said with a nod.

" Are you two here together?" Abigail asked curiously. Riley began to laugh a bit. Ben and I laughed as well.

" No, we're not." I assured her.

" We're good friends. Just friends." Ben added. She nodded.

" Getting back to that subject, thank you for that wonderful gift!" She said to Ben.

" Oh, you did get it? Oh, good!" Ben said with relief.

" Thank you. You know, I could never accept something like that normally, but um… I really wanted it." She admitted with a laugh. I rolled my eyes and walked a step or two away as the two laughed.

" Come on Romeo, get out of there." Riley urged.

" I have been wondering though, what that engraving indicated. The pipe that Big Foot took." Abigail said. Ben and I glanced at each other. We were saved from answering however, by some dude who walked over with another glass of Champaign for Abigail.

" Hi." He said with clear confusion.

" Oh, Doctor Herbert, this is Mr. Brown and his friend Miss Jackson." Abigail introduced.

" Hi." He repeated.

" Hi there!" Ben said with a cheery tone to his voice.

" Who's the stiff?" Riley asked in confusion. I hand to stifle a small giggle.

" Here, why don't I take that," Ben said liberating Abigail of her Champaign glass. " So you can take _that_ off his hands."

" Thank you." She said taking Dr. Herbert's offered glass.

" A toast, yeah?" Ben asked as we all raised our glasses slightly. " To high treason." I gave him a look that I hope he received because it was my 'what the Hell do you think your doing Benjamin' face. Abigail and Dr. Herbert all gave him a look as well, and I could almost sense Riley being confused as well. " That's what these men were committing when they signed the Declaration." Ben added with a nod. I shut my eyes and hoped he wouldn't continue. If he did, I would have to smack him later.

" Ben…" I muttered

" Had we lost the war, they would have been hanged, beheaded, drawn and quartered, and… oh! Oh, my _personal_ favorite, had their entrails cut out and _burned_!" Ben said with a laugh. I shook my head and covered my mouth. He honestly failed at any kind of party conversation- even _I_, the Queen of Disastrous Parties, could do better. Abigail glanced at me. I shook my head apologetically. " So, here's to the men who did what was considered wrong, in order to do what they knew was right. What they knew was right." Ben said looking into Abigail's eyes, and she stared back at him. After an awkward moment I cleared my throat. As Dr. Herbert, Abigail and I all sipped our Champaign, Ben gulped his whole glass down. Oh, Ben…

" Well…" I said.

" Good night!" Ben said with a smile.

" Good night…" Dr. Herbert said perturbed.

" Good night." Abigail said as we walked away. When we were a good distance away from them I smacked Ben's arm harshly.

" Stupid! Ben, that was stupid! That is _not_ what you talk about at parties, yes it's true, but it's not party talk." I scolded.

" I don't think we were trying to make an impression." Ben said setting his glass down on a table, holding onto Abigail's. I dropped mine into a convenient trashcan before Ben emptied what Champaign was left in the glass into a water fountain and we slipped into the Men's bathroom. We walked over to the handicap stall, pulled down the changing station, and Ben shook out a plastic bag.

" Will this work?" Ben asked.

" Mm-hm." I hummed. He gently slid the glass into the bag and pulled out a small bottle of iodine solution. He dropped some onto a cotton ball and opened the bag.

" This better work…" Riley muttered through the earpieces. Ben squirted something else into the bag and tossed the cotton ball in before sealing the bag.

" How does it look?' Riley asked. We watched as Abigail's fingerprints appeared on the glass in a purplish color.

" It's working… It's working." Ben said and he smiled at me.

" Unbelievable. Good job, Arabella." He said.

" Why thank you." I replied with a smile. Ben pulled on the thumb of a plastic glove and carefully pulled the glass out of the bag.

" Careful… one wrong move and this is all down the drain." I told Ben.

" Thanks for that thought." He muttered as he carefully pressed his thumb on the thumbprint and gently rolled the glass off the glove, leaving the print behind. Ben smiled. He looked at me.

" I'm going to try and get in, go back to the van to help Riley." Ben told me. I nodded.

" Good luck." I said before we both left the bathroom and I ran towards the side door. I ran down the stairs, almost falling a few times in my heels, but managed to run across the street back towards Riley's van. I yanked the side door open, sliding it back and jumped in, sliding it closed. I looked at Riley and he was just staring at me through his glasses, which I was beginning to love even more every time he wore them. They just made him look so cute…

" What?" I asked when I noticed he was still staring. He shook his head, blushing and took the earpiece and microphone.

" It's just that you look kinda… even more hot in that dress…" Riley muttered. He turned away from me and looked down at his computer screen I blushed.

" Oh… thanks." I said with a brief smile, sitting down next to him. The next few minutes were composed of awkward silence. I shivered and rubbed my arms, remembering that I didn't bring my clothes to change back into. Riley glanced at me before searching around him. He grabbed a blue zip-up hoodie and draped it around my shoulders. I smiled at him. " Thank you."

" Anytime." Riley assured with a nod and a small smile.

" We're in the elevator." We heard Ben say.

" Okay, I'm gonna turn of the surveillance cameras. Ready? In five… four… three… now." Riley said putting the pencil he was toying with in his mouth, typing a few things. " Ben Gates, you are now the invisible man." We could see him on the small window that was the current video coming to _us_ from the Archives, and on the left was what the guards were seeing, and that was nothing. Ben walked over to an elevator and pulled on a pair of white gloves. He tapped something and a keyboard appeared.

" Hit us with it." Riley said.

" A, E, F, G, L, O, R, V, Y." Ben told us. Riley pulled up something else up on his computer and typed in the letters.

" What are you doing?" I asked Riley.

" This system will run these letters and come up with possible words and phrases. It's pretty cool." He said with a nod. " Anagrams being listed…" Tons of anagrams popped up. " Okay… Top results; A glove fry, a very golf, fargo levy, gravy floe, valey frog. Also; ago fly rev, grove fly a, r fly ga, ara fly gov, elf gov ray-" Riley listed.

" Ben. Is it Valley Forge?" I asked picking up the 'valey frog' thing.

" It's Valley Forge." Ben agreed.

" Valley Forge… I don't have that on my computer." Riley said searching the possibilities again.

" It's Valley Forge, she hit the 'e' and the 'l' twice." Ben said as we heard some clicking.

" Valley Forge?" Riley asked me.

" It was a camp sight during the American Revolution. You see, after a bunch of pretty tough battles with the British, the Continental Army came to Valley Forge on December 19, 1777. The conditions around winter were tough though, they ran out of food so they had for scavenge for it and there were few blankets and their clothing wasn't all that warm." I explained. Riley stared at me.

" Whoa. You really _are_ just as historically knowledgeable as Ben." Riley said. I smiled.

" We're in!" Ben said. We smiled as we saw Ben walk into the preservation room on the screen, still having the empty room play for the security guards. Ben pointed to the camera and smiled.

" Hello." Riley said. We watched as he uncovered the Declaration. " Ben, you are doing great." Riley complimented. Ben began to remove the screws out of the housing for the Declaration. " Pick it up, Ben…"

" Be careful." I added.

" I am, I am." Ben mumbled.

" You've got about one -" Riley was cut off when he froze because the video we were watching Ben through, went fuzzy and grainy. Riley clicked a few things.

" What happened?" I asked. He kept clicking, but nothing happened.

" I lost my feed!" Riley said in a panic.

" What!" Ben asked in alarm.

" I lost my feed, Ben!" Riley repeated checking the wire connections. " I don't know where anyone is, I-I have nothing, Ben! Ben, I have _nothing._" Riley was in full-on panic mode.

" Get out of there!" I ordered.

" Get out of there, now!" Riley joined in.

" _Get out of there_!" We both yelled at him together.

" I'm taking the whole thing! I'll get it out in the elevator!" Ben told us.

" What are you talking- is it heavy?" Riley asked. I gave Riley a look.

" No duh!" I said punching his arm lightly.

" I was just curious!" Riley defended himself. There was a very long, extremely tense moment, and extremely quiet moment as we waited to hear something from Ben. Then we heard three very, very, _very_ loud gunshots. Riley and I jumped and looked around the van.

" What was that?" Riley asked. We heard another shot. " Who's shooting!"

" Oh my God, this bad… bad… very bad…" I muttered running my hands through my hair. There were a few more shots, then nothing.

" Ben, are you still there?" We heard nothing but a drill. " Ben?" Riley asked, panic creeping into his voice again.

" I'm in the elevator… Ian's here… He was, uh… shooting…" Ben told us. Riley looked off for a moment.

" I _hate_ that guy…" He all but growled.

" Remind me _never_ to meet him then." I said leaning back in my chair. My heart was pounding from the turn events had just taken. First Ben is almost exploded, now he's being shot at. He was certainly becoming a trouble magnet. After hearing nothing from Ben for a while, and faintly hearing fancy music, I pulled my earpiece and microphone off and gave them to Riley, who tossed them into a small little box he had next to him. He pulled his glasses off, putting them into his tan coat pocket.

Riley kept his headset on as he climbed into the driver's seat and I climbed into the passenger's side seat. We waited nervously for Ben to exit the building.

" I hope he makes it out…" I said.

" So do I, but I hope Ian doesn't find us before Ben can get out here." Riley admitted, sliding down in his seat slightly. He gripped the steering wheel and began to tap against it. " Where are you, Ben?" He sang quietly. I rolled my eyes at him. " Where are you?"

" Stop talking!" Ben snapped. We looked out the window and saw Ben walking towards us. " Start the van." Riley quickly turned the ignition.

" Oh, no." I said. When Riley looked at me with worry, I pointed towards Abigail, who was following Ben.

" Ben, the uh… the mean D-Declaration Lady is behind you." Riley informed Ben. I slid into the back of the van and sighed. This was not going well…

" Hey!" We heard her say.

" Oh! It's you!" Ben said trying to be casual. " Hello."

" Mr. Brown, what's going on?" Abigail asked. I shook my head. Ben should _not_ have given that toast, because right now _we_ were the ones committing high treason… " What's that?" Please, please, please, _please_ tell me she didn't spot the Declaration!

" Souvenir." He said.

" _Really_?" Abigail said, her voice hinting at sarcasm.

" _Stop chatting and get in the van_." Riley muttered agitatedly through his teeth. I begged in my mind for Ben to think of something else to say to _get out_.

" Did you enjoy the party?" Ben asked.

" Yeah…" Abigail muttered. Suddenly, a blaring alarm sounded and a light flashed on the side of the Archives.

" Oh God…" Ben I managed to hear Ben say.

" Oh my God…" Riley sighed slinking farther down into his seat, covering his eyes.

" Oh dear sweet Lord…" I muttered. So now we had not only this Ian guy after us, now we have the FBI on our tails! We might as well paint targets on our backs!

" Oh my _God_!" Abigail yelled. " You did not! Security! Over here! Give me that!"

" It's yours! Take it!" Ben said before running around the van and jumping into the passenger side. I looked through the windshield and spotted a rather large catering van. In the front, I saw a blond man dressed in black. He looked so familiar… wait! He was that guy I ran into on the day I was walking home!

" That guy… I know him…" I muttered.

" Go!" Ben said. Riley began to frantically try and move the van. Suddenly Ben and I both saw the catering van peel into the street, almost hitting Abigail before it screeched to a stop.

" Oh bad…" Ben muttered as he watched a man jump from the van and grab Abigail. " Oh bad, bad, bad!"

" Who is that?" I asked.

" That blond dude in the front is Ian!" Riley explained as Ben jumped out of the van.

" _That's_ Ian!" I all but yelled. I ran into him before! Oh no, that means he'll recognize me at some point…

Ben wasn't able to go around the van, seeing as one of Ian's men began shooting at us. Ben ducked, I heard a headlight be taken out, Riley's outside mirror was blown off, and the window shattered. Riley and I covered our heads and I shared at him in shock. Ben jumped back into the car as Riley brushed the shattered glass off of himself, and I had to shake it out of awkward places in my dress.

" Go, go, go!" Ben ordered. The catering van took off down the street and Riley began to speed after it. Abigail was in danger, and there was no way, control freak or not, anyone was getting hurt. We sped after Ian and his men, praying nothing could get worse.

_**Afterword: There we go! The action begins! And * GASP! ***_ _**That English blond man Arabella ran into earlier in the story was Ian? Who knew! XD I would love to thank those who have reviewed: **_Phillipfan24 _**and **_Neverlandlover _**and**_ GracefulWolvesInTheNight. _**Your reviews are all appreciated and they keep me writing! I'd love more reviews! Thanks!**_


	8. Chapter Seven: Shots In The Dark

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Seven: Shots In The Dark

The sound of police sirens echoed around the streets and the lights on the cop cars flashed in the dark. We were close to the catering van, trying to figure out what to do when we caught up to them. Riley was still in a panic from being shot at, but then again, who wouldn't be?

" Once we catch them, what are we gonna do?" Riley asked.

" Workin' on it." Ben told him. The catering van made a sharp right turn and Riley quickly jerked his steering wheel.

" Right, right, right!" He muttered as we made the hairpin turn. I was thrown into the side of Riley's seat and kept from falling into him by grabbing onto Ben's arm. We were officially driving at speeds _way_ beyond the speed limit- now we were traffic offenders as well as historical document thieves.

A garbage truck pulled out in front of Ian's van and it took another sharp right turn. Riley turned again and was struggling to keep his hands on the steering wheel seeing as he kept getting thrown into the door. I straightened up and looked out of the windshield.

" Oh no…" I muttered seeing that we were heading into a construction sight. As we sped onto the uneven ground, we began bouncing. I was fairly sure we could all get whiplash out of all the movement. Everything that was hanging up around the van was falling everywhere and some things were probably breaking.

" Skidding, skidding, skidding!" Riley mumbled as he began to skid on a patch of dirt. Yet _another_ hairpin right turn caused the back doors of the catering van to fly open, Abigail clutching onto the top, swinging out over the street.

" Oh no…" Ben muttered.

" Not good." I added.

" Holy Lord…" Riley murmured. I could see Ian in the back of the truck, and he moved out of the way as some guy with a blue baseball cap pointed a gun at us, and began to shoot. I was prepared for the van's windshield to shatter at any second, and so did Ben and Riley, seeing as we all ducked. The bullets only hit the hood, sending up small sparks, but there wasn't any shattering glass. I sighed in relief. Ben climbed out of his seat and went to the back of the van. Abigail was swinging wildly on the door of the other van, and Ian yanked the arm of the man who was shooting down. He looked at Abigail and then looked over at our van. His eyes scanned over Riley before landing on me. He raised an eyebrow and smirked. Oh no… he recognized me…

Riley and I heard the back van door slide open and we glanced back to see Ben gripping onto a seat belt, leaning out side of the van.

" Get me next to her!" Ben called to Riley. Riley swiftly switched lanes and sped up even more. I turned and watched as Ben reached out for Abigail, but the door she was holding onto slammed into the side of the catering van, and Ben briefly ducked inside as Riley dodged a city bus as it blew past. Once we were in the clear, we drove back towards Abigail and Ben reached out to her. They were about to grab hands, but the door slammed back into the back of the catering van, and swung back.

" Abigail!" Ben called. She reached out towards him, and he grabbed her around the waist. She wrapped her arm around his neck and I caught sight of the man with the gun leaning out around the open doors, pointing the gun at us.

" Ben! Hurry up!" I yelled.

" Jump!" Ben told Abigail, and pulled her into the van. They fell to the floor as two gunshots rang out, hitting the inside of the van somewhere. Ben slid the door shut and Riley took a left turn away from Ian and his men.

" Are you alright?" Ben asked Abigail.

" No! Those lunatics-" Abigail began.

" You aren't hurt are you?" Ben interrupted.

" You're _ALL _lunatics!" Abigail said looking at all of us. I had climbed into the passenger's seat, seeing as the back was getting crowded.

" Are you hungry?" Ben asked. I gave him a look.

" What?" Abigail and I asked at the same time.

" _Are you alright_?" Ben asked her again.

" Still a little on edge from being shot at, but I'll be okay!" Riley said looking back at Ben. " Thanks for asking." I detected sarcasm in that last statement, and I didn't blame him.

" Are you okay, Riley?" I asked. He looked over at me.

" Yeah, how about you?" He asked.

" I'm fine. That was my first time getting shot at though." I admitted.

" Welcome to the club." Riley muttered shooting a glance at Ben.

" Yeah, well, I'm _not_ alright! Those men have the _Declaration of Independence_!" Abigail shouted. Riley went wide-eyed and did a double take as he looked at the road, then at Ben.

" She _lost_ it!" Riley all but yelled.

" Oh no!" I groaned. Ben stood and reached over towards one of Riley's old computers and pulled out what was a grey plastic tube, just large enough to hold a rolled up document.

" They don't have it." Ben said unscrewing the top of the tube, then pulling a yellowed rolled up piece of paper covered in plastic out of it. " See? Okay? Now could you _please_ stop shouting?" He asked Abigail. Riley smirked. Abigail made a desperate grab for the Declaration, but Ben pulled it away quickly.

" Give me that!" She ordered loudly. She was beginning to give me a headache. I shot Ben a look.

" You're still shouting. And it's _really_ starting to annoy." Ben said looking down at her. " And you'd do well, Dr. Chase, to be a bit more civilized in this instance." Ben said as he walked over to the front of the van. He was about to kneel again but I held up a hand, stood, and gestured for him to sit in the passenger's seat again. He gave a nod of thanks and I saw Riley laughing at Ben's comment. I knelt down beside Abigail and she stared at me in shock for a moment, before her attention turned back to Ben and the Declaration.

" If this is the real one, then what did they get?" Abigail asked.

" Souvenir." Ben told her. I had to smile and laugh slightly.

" Brilliant." I told him.

" I thought it would be a good idea to have a duplicate, and it turned out I was right. " Actually, I had to pay for the souvenir _and_ the real one, so you owe me thirty five dollars, plus tax." He informed Abigail with a pleasant smile. Riley laughed.

" Genius." Riley said.

" Who were those men!" Abigail asked, again in a raised tone of voice, and now that she was beside, me, it was even worse.

" Just the guys we _warned_ you were going to steal the Declaration." I told her. She stared at me.

" And _you didn't believe us_!" Riley said with a mocking tone in his voice.

" We did the only thing we could do to keep it safe…" Ben said with a small sigh.

" Verdammt! Give me that!" Abigail shouted, lurching forward, trying to grab the Declaration. I grabbed her shoulder to stop her and Ben held the Declaration out of her reach.

" You know something?" I asked. She looked at me.

" You're shouting again." Ben informed.

" And I'm pretty sure she was swearing too." Riley added.

" Well, we probably deserve that." He said.

" Oh, no, we _definitely_ deserve that." I said. Ben gave me a look. " She has a right to be mad with us. We deserve to be sworn at. But I could _really_ do without the shouting." I admitted. Riley and Ben chuckled.

" There's _no map on the back of the Declaration of Independence._" Abigail stated.

" And there's no chance anyone can steal _this_," Ben rattled the Declaration in it's container lightly. " either! I level with you one hundred percent, everything I told you was the truth." Ben said.

" I want that document Mr. Brown!" Abigail said.

" Okay my name is not Brown. It's Gates. I level with you ninety eight percent." Ben said.

" And my name's actually Arabella Fletcher." I said.

" Riley Poole!" Riley interjected. Abigail stared at Ben.

" Wait a minute, did you just say _Gates_?" She asked, looking at Ben, then me, then Riley. " Gates? You're that family with the conspiracy theory about the founding fathers!"

" It's not a conspiracy theory." Ben and I said at the same time, both giving each other a look afterwards.

" Per se." Riley added and I smacked his arm.

" Okay, I take it back, you guys aren't liars, you're _insane_!" Abigail decided. " You can't seriously intend to run chemical tests on the Declaration of Independence in the back of a moving van!"

" We have a clean room environment all set up. EDS suits, a particulate air filtration system, the whole shebang." Riley informed her. I nodded, barely remembering that it was set up in Ben's apartment.

" Really?" She asked, looking at Ben.

" We can't go back there." Ben said.

" What? Why not?" Riley asked.

" Ben, did you do something you didn't tell us about?" I asked.

" I might have paid for that souvenir Declaration with a credit card…" Ben muttered, running a hand through his hair.

" A _credit card slip_! Dude, we're on the grid! Do you have- they're gonna have all your records from forever as well as Arabella's, they're gonna have _MY_ records from forever!" Riley ranted.

" I know!" Ben interrupted him, hopefully stopping Riley's rage fueled rant. " It's only a matter of minutes till the FBI shows up at my front door."

" What do we do?" Riley asked.

" We need those letters." Ben said. I sighed.

" What letters?" Abigail asked cautiously. I grabbed Ben's shoulder.

" You do realize how much convincing that's gonna take right?" I asked.

" I do. You know what, get off the road, take a right." Ben ordered Riley.

" _What letters_." She asked again. Riley pulled over in the small park-like area off the road, just across from the Jefferson Memorial. I could see it over the water, and it was glowing brilliantly against the night sky. Ben jumped out of the car with the Declaration and began to pace on the nice green grass. Abigail slid the door open and sat on the floor, her legs hanging outside. I sat beside her and Riley slid into the passenger's seat and rolled down the window, peering out.

" What letters are you talking about?" Abigail demanded to know.

" The original Silence Dogood letters." I informed her, zipping up Riley's hoodie to keep me warm. I was glad to notice it didn't smell like any cheesy body sprays that gave me headaches. It just smelled like guys shampoo, which I happened to not mind. She stared at me in shock.

" The original Silence Do Good letters? Did you steal those too?" She asked, looking at Ben.

" They were scans of the originals. Quiet please." Ben told her beginning to pace.

" How'd you get _scans_?" She inquired.

" He um… knows the person who owns the originals." I said, picking my words carefully.

" Now shush!" Ben said.

" _Why_ do you need them?" She asked. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

" She really can't shut her mouth can she?" Ben asked Riley, who shrugged. " Tell you what, look, I will let you hold onto this if you promise to _shut up_! Please!" Ben handed Abigail the Declaration and I shook my head. He should know she'll try to do something stupid. She took a hold of it and looked up at him. " Thank you!"

" Ben, you know what you have to do." Riley informed Ben.

" I know what to do, I'm just trying to figure out if there's anything _else_ we _can_ do." Ben said. Apparently Ben had informed Riley about his relationship with his father. It wasn't a good one. Ben's dad, Patrick Gates, thought that Ben was throwing his life away, and that he was sucking mine away. I disagree with that greatly.

" Ben, just get it over with." I insisted.

" Well, uh, not to be a, uh, _noodge_, but you do realize how many people we have after us? We probably have our own _satellite _by now." Riley said. I chuckled.

" As horrible as that probably is, it sounds kinda cool. I mean admit it. It does." I said. Riley leaned out the window further to look at me and he snickered and rolled his eyes.

" It took you all of _two seconds_ to decide to steal the Declaration of Independence." Riley told Ben. I began to notice Abigail fidgeting.

" Yes, but I didn't know I was going to have to personally tell my _Dad_ about it." Ben finished just as Abigail took off running, clutching the Declaration to her chest. " Hey! Not cool! Not cool!" Ben said grabbing Abigail.

" Let me _GO!_" Abigail yelled.

" Okay, you're let go. Go, shoo!" Ben said releasing her, yanking the Declaration away.

" I'm not going without the Declaration." Abigail said grabbing at the Declaration again.

" You're not going _with_ the Declaration." Ben told her, pulling it away, and putting it over his shoulder, the second document cover having a shoulder strap.

" I'm not letting it out of my sight, so I'm going!" She insisted seizing the strap, trying to yank the Declaration away, but only succeeded in pulling Ben closer to her.

" Wait, you're_ not_ going with _us_ with the _Declaration_." Ben yanked his shoulder backwards, pulling Abigail towards him.

" Yes, I am!"

" No! You're not!" Ben said staring down at her, their faces barely inches apart. I stood and looked over at Riley as the two just stared at each other for a moment.

" Awkward." Riley said.

" He's been flirting with her all night." I decided to tell him. Riley gave me a funny look.

" He has? I don't think so." He said.

" He has a really weird way of flirting, but, he's been flirting with her from the moment they met. He likes her, I just don't think he wants to admit it." I said. Riley nodded, getting out of the van, leaning against the door. I yanked my shoes off and tossed them into the van.

" I don't understand how you can wear those things." He said. I smirked.

" That's 'cause you're not a girl." I said. We finally heard Ben and Abigail speak again.

" Look, if you wanted to leave me behind, you shouldn't have told me where you were going." Abigail said. Ben opened and closed his mouth a few times before shutting his eyes and sighing. Riley groaned and let his head drop against the door.

" Come on guys, if we're going to Ben's Dad's house, we better get going, cause it's in Pennsylvania." I said jumping back into the van. Riley sighed and ran around to the driver's side. Ben let Abigail hold the Declaration and he got back into the passenger's side, and Abigail got in the back, next to me.

" So, how did you get brought into this?" She asked me.

" I've been helping Ben try to find this Treasure since seventh grade." I told her. " His obsession became my obsession."

" I see." She said with a nod before staring out the windshield as we drove down the highway.

" I haven't seen your dad in probably six years." I told Ben, positioning myself between the two front seats.

" I haven't seen him in maybe four." Ben muttered, staring out the window.

" It'll be a good thing to see him. Maybe you could resolve some things." I suggested.

" We're going there because of the Treasure. No resolutions will be made." He muttered.

" Oh… true…" I said with a sigh. We pulled off onto the right exit and began to drive into Pennsylvania.

OOOO

About an hour and a half later, Riley was driving us down the familiar street that Ben's childhood house was on. We slowed down when Ben said so and we stopped in front of a two floor white house. I smiled and remembered hanging out in the back yard with him. Some of the lights were on, and a car was in the driveway.

" Looks okay." Riley said.

" Park a couple of blocks away." Ben insisted.

" How long do you think we have?" He asked.

" We've gotta give it a couple of hours at least." Ben said yanking his bow tie off.

" I hope." I added.

" What do we do about _her_." Riley asked, looking back at Abigail. " I've got some duct tape in the back." Abigail gave him a disbelieving look.

" No, that won't be necessary, she'll behave." Ben looked at her. " Promise you won't be any trouble?"

" I promise!" Abigail said.

" See? She's curious." Ben said with a smirk. " That's just how _you_ became obsessed, Arabella. You were curious." Ben said smiling at me. I smiled back.

" Indeed I was." I agreed. " And now I'm here, actually and _finally_ on the trail of the treasure with my best friend and a brand new friend." I smiled at Riley, who smiled back.

We parked two blocks away and I yanked my shoes back on. We jumped out of the van and began to walk towards the house again. I couldn't help but smile as we walked. I was remembering all of the memories Ben and I shared in this neighborhood. I spotted my old house, a red house with a large oak tree in the back yard. Ben and I had built a little platform in a good spot on it, so it served as a perch in it so we could discuss the treasure. I smiled and noticed the wooden platform was still there. It was obviously rotting and clearly broken, but it was still there. I tapped Ben's shoulder and pointed.

" Look! It's still there." I said grinning. He grinned back when he spotted it.

" Remember when we threw snowballs out of the tree at the trees in the other yards?" Ben asked. I laughed.

" And we accidentally hit Mrs. Carlson's car?" I asked. We both laughed as we continued walking.

We came around the corner to Patrick's house and began to walk up the sidewalk, towards the door. Ben sighed and reached for the doorbell. I prepared myself. All Hell might be about to break loose.

_**Afterword: I hope you enjoyed it! Again I will thank those who reviewed: **_Neverlandlover _**and**_ GracefulWolvesInTheNight._** You're guys' reviews made me happy! =D Hope you liked the chapter! The next one will hopefully be up tomorrow! Reviews would be loved! Thanks!**_


	9. Chapter Eight: Cooperation

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Eight: Cooperation

Ben pushed the doorbell and stood ahead of all of us. I stood to his left, and had my hands in the pockets of the hoodie I was wearing and Riley and Abigail were standing behind us. We waited and watched the back door before us. Ben shifted the Declaration around on his shoulder nervously. After a moment, the door opened, and there stood Patrick Gates, wearing a bathrobe over lounging clothing. Patrick's eyes went straight to Ben, and he just stared at him through his wire-rimmed glasses.

" Dad." Ben said attempting a smile. Patrick glanced at all of us.

" Where's the party?" He asked sarcastically.

" Oh, well, uh… I'm in a little trouble." Ben said. Patrick eyed Abigail.

" Is she pregnant?" He asked. I looked back at Abigail, who looked at Riley in disbelief.

" Well, if she is, are you going to leave the woman carrying your grandchild standing out in the cold?" Ben asked with a tiny smile. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Patrick finally seemed to notice me, and the first smile we saw from him appeared on his face.

" Arabella?" He asked. I smiled back, as he hugged me.

" Hey, Patrick. It's good to see you again!" I said accepting the hug.

" Come in!" He said moving me inside first before letting everyone else in. I walked into the living room and looked around. Not much had changed. The same small pictures were on the mantle piece- a few of Ben and Patrick and his Grandfather, and there was one of Ben and I in middle school.

" This better not be about the dumb treasure." I heard Patrick tell Ben. Ben and I sighed in unison and I walked over to stand beside Ben. " Well, have a seat, make yourselves comfortable, there's some pizza, still warm I think." Patrick said pointing to a pizza box on the coffee table. Riley glanced at Patrick then down at the box. I wondered how long it would take for him to start eating it. I nudged Ben with my elbow.

" Dad. I need the Silence Dogood letters." Ben said. Patrick gave him a disbelieving look. " Yeah, it's about the treasure."

" And he dragged you three into this nonsense?" Patrick asked Abigail, Riley, and I.

" Literally!" Abigail said.

" You know I've been looking for the treasure with Ben since I we were in seventh grade." I told Patrick.

" I volunteered!" Riley said happily, smiling at Patrick.

" Well unvolunteer! Before you waste your life!" Patrick said.

" Knock it off, Dad." Ben said with a tired tinge to his voice.

" I should know! I'm the family kook! I have a job! A house! Health insurance! At least I had your mother for however brief a time." Patrick ranted. Riley had just pulled out a slice of pizza, and was now sitting on the couch munching on it. " At least I had you. What do you have? _Him_?" He asked looking at Riley. I was about to say something when Ben spoke again.

" If you just give us the letters, we're gone." Ben said.

" You disappoint me, Ben." Patrick stated.

" Well, maybe that's the _real_ Gates family legacy- son's who disappoint their fathers." Ben shot back.

" Ben." I said quietly, giving him a look.

" Get out. Take your troubles with you." He said quietly. After a moment of debate Ben looked up at his dad.

" I found the Charlotte." He said. Patrick's eyes widened and he looked at him.

" _The__ Charlotte_? You mean she _was_ a ship?" Patrick asked. Ben smiled.

" Yeah, she was beautiful. It was amazing, Dad." He said.

" And the treasure?" Patrick asked again, his voice slightly tinged with excitement. Ben's face fell.

" No, no, but we found a clue that lead us here-" Ben began, but Patrick cut him off.

" And that'll lead you to another clue! And that's all you'll ever find is another clue! Don't you get it, Ben? I think I've figured it out. The legend says the treasure was buried to keep it from the British, but what really happened was that the legend was invented to keep the British occupied, looking for buried treasure. The treasure is a myth." Patrick told us. Ben looked down at me and I gave him a small smile.

" I refuse." I muttered.

" We _both_ refuse to believe that." Ben said. Patrick took a few steps towards Ben.

" You can believe that if you want. You're grown people! What am I doing? Do what you want, Ben. Do what you want. Just don't ruin others lives because of this! Don't!" Patrick said looking at me on the last part of his statement. I shook my head and sighed.

" He's probably right." Abigail said. " You don't even know if there _is_ another clue."

" Well, I could think of a way we could find out. We could find out right now." Ben said looking at her.

" Okay, we'll need a table, gloves, q-tips, and a sterile surface. Oh, and lemon juice and a few cups." Riley said standing. We all began searching the house frantically. I grabbed a few trash bags and ripped them open, taping them to the dinning room table, creating a sterile surface. As I began to tape it down, Patrick came in.

" So, you still believe in this treasure?" He asked.

" Mm-hm. And based on what we've been discovering, my belief is even stronger!" I told him, crouching down to tape the side down.

" Arabella, I want you to listen to me." Patrick said quietly. I looked up at him. " Please don't ruin your life. I know you're a smart girl, I've known you since you were in middle school. I don't want to see you throw everything away like Ben has." I stood and put a hand on his shoulder.

" Ben hasn't thrown anything away, Patrick. He's going after something he believes in. This time he's right, Patrick. I know it. He has been wrong about things before, I do admit it, but this time, he _is _right. You're whole _family_ has been right all these years! Believe me. Please. No, better yet, believe _Ben_. Believe your _son_. He won't let you down. I swear. Okay?" I said. Patrick gave me a small smile before giving me another hug. He then departed for the kitchen, grabbing a plate that had a slice of pizza on it that was on the oven.

Eventually, we had gathered all the supplies we needed, and Ben pulled on a pair of white cloth gloves, holding out a pair to Abigail and a pair to me. Riley pulled on a pair yellow rubber gloves. He unrolled the Declaration and laid it down on the table, the back facing us. We all glanced at each other and let out a collective breath, all nervous about we were about to do.

" Looks like animal skin." We all heard Patrick say. We all looked up to see him standing in the doorway of the dinning room. " How old is it?"

" At least two hundred years." I said.

" Really?" He asked. " You sure?"

" Pretty darn!" Ben replied.

" Now, if this thing is in invisible ink, how do we look at it?" Riley asked, pulling his glasses on.

" Throw it in the oven!" Patrick suggested.

" NO!" We all said.

" Well, self-fade inks can only be brought out with heat!" He informed us.

" Yes, but this is-" Abigail began.

" It's _very_ old. It's very old, and we can't risk compromising the map!" Ben told his father. Patrick shrugged.

" You need a reagent!" He said, walking back towards the kitchen.

" Hey, Dad, it's getting late, why don't you get some rest?" Ben suggested.

" I'm fine!" Patrick called back at us. I rolled my eyes.

" Did you _really_ think that that would get rid of him?" I asked. Ben shook his head and sighed, looking back down at the Declaration.

" Lemons…" Ben muttered. Riley handed Ben a small plate of lemon wedges, and Ben took a wedge, and set it down holding the lemon above the Declaration.

" You can't do that." Abigail said gripping his wrist.

" But it _has_ to be done." Ben told her, looking over at her.

" Then someone trained to handle antique documents is going to do it." Abigail said.

" She has a point. It is the best way to keep it safe." I admitted, crossing my arms. The sleeves on the hoodie slid down over my hands and I felt like a little kid. I quickly rolled them up to my elbows again, hoping they would stay there. Riley's arms were obviously longer than mine.

" Okay." Ben agreed after a moment. He handed her the lemon wedge and sighed.

" Now, if there _is_ a secret message," Abigail began, grabbing a q-tip. " It will be marked in the upper right hand corner." Ben was staring at her again.

" That's right." He said. I rolled my eyes. When he didn't stop staring, I waved a hand in front of his face, finally knocking him out of whatever trance he put himself into. She rubbed the cotton edge of the q-tip against the lemon and sighed again.

" I'm _so_ getting fired for this." Abigail muttered. I was probably going to get fired as well. But, if we found the treasure, it would _so_ be worth it. She lowered the q-tip, and stopped, half an inch above the paper. I could tell everyone was holding their breaths. She gently began to rub the q-tip against the corner. We waited, and nothing happened. Abigail gave Ben an 'I told you so' look and he just stared at the paper.

" I told you. You need _heat_." Patrick said. Abigail and Ben glanced at each other, a silent agreement passing between them. They both leaned down over the Declaration, and both let out a breath. A symbol appeared in the corner, as well as a few numbers. They quickly disappeared again. We all grinned at each other. I was so happy I grabbed Riley in a tight hug. He stood there a moment in shock before hugging back, and patting my shoulder. I pulled back, slightly embarrassed, and blushed, catching a slight blush on Riley's cheeks.

" We need more juice." Ben said.

" We need more heat." Abigail added.

" I'll get a hair dryer!" I said running towards where the bathroom was. I yanked a drawer open and pulled out a hair dryer, running it back downstairs, giving it to Abigail. Ben was carefully running a light amount of lemon juice over the back of the Declaration and Riley was watching. Abigail plugged in the hair dryer and began to lightly blow it across the back of the Declaration. A pattern of numbers was appearing on the back, and I marveled at them. Ben was ready with a pen, writing down the numbers.

" That's not a map." Riley said. He looked closely at the numbers. " Is it?"

" More clues. What a surprise." Patrick stated. I shook my head. Ben's father had always been like this. He never thought that Ben would do anything good with his life that he'd throw it away looking for the treasure. He was also convinced Ben had brainwashed me into believing him, which was _so_ not true. He needed to trust Ben more.

" Are they latitudes and longitudes?" Riley asked. I leaned over Ben's shoulder and noticed the pattern in the numbers. I immediately knew what it was.

" It's why we need the Silence Dogood letters." Ben said looking up at Patrick.

" _That's_ the key?" Abigail asked. Ben nodded.

" The key in Silence undetected." He agreed. " Dad, can we have the letters now?" Patrick looked down at the floor for a moment.

" Will someone _please _explain to me what these magic numbers are?" Riley asked.

" It's an Ottendorf Cipher." I told Riley.

" That's right." Patrick said.

" Oh, okay." Riley said with a nod. He looked at me. " What's an Ottendorf Cipher?"

" It's just codes." Patrick said.

" Each of these three numbers corresponds with a word in a key." Ben said. I looked at the back of the Declaration. The last of the numbers had faded again, descending into invisibility for what might be forever.

" Usually a random book or a news article." Abigail explained.

" In _this _case, the key is the Silence Dogood letters." I said, stealing Ben's notepad to explain to Riley. " So it's the page number of the key text, the line of the page, and the letter in that line." I explained, pointing to each number. Riley was staring at the page, fascinated, and I was pretty sure he understood it.

" So, Dad, where are the letters?" Ben asked.

" You know, it was just by sheer happenstance that his grandfather even found them!" Patrick began the story he'd told me before.

" Dad." Ben said, picking up on something that was clearly off. His father only launched into stories when he was nervous.

" They were in a desk in the press room of the New England Current!" He continued.

" Dad…" Ben muttered.

" Patrick." I tried to interrupt, but it didn't work.

" That's a newspaper." Patrick said.

" Dad, where are the letters?" Ben asked again. Patrick looked at us.

" I don't have them, son." Patrick told us. We all stared at him in shock. Where were they now, and what were we going to do?

_**Afterword: Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it! I know it's a bit short, but I was pressed for time for finishing this chapter, and I'm exhausted today! And again, thanks to the reviewer(s): **_Neverlandlover. _**Thank you for reviewing! I might get a chapter up tomorrow, but I'm not sure- I have some doctors appointments (including one for my injured shoulder) and horseback riding. I'll try and get one up! One more side note, I went to the movies, and I saw a commercial for the re-release of **__**Titanic**__**! I am SO HAPPY! =D If none of you know, I wrote a Titanic fanfiction and am possibly writing a sequel for it so I'm happy it's coming back to theatres! Anyway, REVIEWS ARE LOVED! Thanks!**_


	10. Chapter Nine: Philadelphia

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Nine: Philadelphia

" What?" Ben asked. The look on his face was a mixture of unhappiness, and blank emotion (if that's even possible, and if it wasn't, Ben just made it possible).

" I don't have them." Patrick repeated. Riley stared at him, mouth agape. Abigail gripped the table, staring down at the Declaration and I shook my head, crossing my arms. Ben flopped into a chair, and pulled his right glove off, using his teeth. He cleared his throat as he removed the other glove.

" Where are they?" He asked.

" I donated them to the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia." Patrick told us. I sighed.

" Well, at least they're in a proper and respectful place…" I muttered.

" Time to go." Ben said standing. He walked over to grab his suit coat, which was draped over a small table.

" I still can't believe that all this time, no one knew what was on the back." Abigail said. Patrick gave her a curious look and walked up to the table.

" The back of what?" He asked, beginning to pick up the Declaration.

" Wh- AH-AH-AH!" Riley yelled, reaching towards Patrick, hoping to stop him.

" NO!" Ben and I shouted, but it was too late. Patrick had picked up the Declaration, and saw what exactly this mystery document was.

" Oh my God! Oh my God!" He said in shock, a look of horror crossing his face.

" I know." Ben said.

" Oh my God! What have you done? This is the-"

" I know!" Ben said again.

" This is the _Declaration of Independence!_" He stated.

" We know." I said.

" Yes, and it's _very_ delicate." Abigail said, gently taking it from Patrick's shaking hands.

" You _stole _it?" Patrick half stated, half questioned. Riley quickly pointed to Ben, trying to blame him, when we all knew fully well that Riley was one third of the master mind- Ben and I were the other two thirds.

" I want to explain, but I don't have time." Ben said walking towards Patrick. " It _was_ necessary. You saw the cipher!"

" And that will lead to anther clue, and that will lead to _another_ clue!" Patrick said in exasperation. " There _is no treasure. _I wasted twenty years of my life, and now you've destroyed yours! And your friends'! And you've pulled _me_ into all of this."

" We can't have that." Ben said. He turned to Riley. " Can I see that duct tape you brought?" Riley held up the large roll of duct tape and raised an eyebrow.

" Why, what are we gonna do?" He asked Ben. Ben led Patrick to the living room.

" Sit down, Dad. Make yourself comfortable." Ben said. Patrick gave him a look as he sat in a chair in front of the TV. " Look, I'm sorry for what I'm about to do." Ben snatched the duct tape from Riley and swiftly began to wrap tape around Patrick's wrists and ankles.

" Oh my God… Really?" Abigail muttered. Patrick sighed and let Ben continue to secure him to the chair.

" Yes, really, this way he can't call the cops. And anyways, the FBI will probably show up here some time soon, they'll let him out." Ben said he grabbed the TV remote and handed it to Patrick, and I grabbed Patrick's soda and gave it to him. Ben began to wind the duct tape comfortably around his chest and back of the chair, but tight enough to keep him in place.

" I'm sorry Patrick, but he's kinda right." I said. Patrick sighed.

" At least I can move my wrists a bit…" He muttered. I gave him a small smile before giving him one last hug.

" I'm sorry again, Dad." Ben said. He said nothing and switched the TV on. With one last sigh, we all left Patrick's house.

" We can't take my van." Riley said stopping us.

" Oh, God, you're right. They probably got a description off of some witness of our car chase. And not to mention security cameras and crap like that." I said.

" Yeah. So. We'll need a car." Riley said.

" We can take my Dad's." Ben said gesturing to the car in the driveway.

" They keys-" Abigail began.

" He leaves them under the sun visor. He's forgetful." Ben explained, walking over to the car. I shrugged and followed, jumping into the back seat. Abigail got into the passenger's side and Ben got into the driver's seat. Riley slid into the back next to me and leaned back against the seat in a relaxed position. He pulled his glasses off, putting them in his coat pocket, crossing his arms and shutting his eyes.

" Maybe we can actually get some sleep…" Riley muttered.

" We'll find some motel or something to spend the night in." Ben said.

" If I fall asleep in the car, let me stay there." Riley muttered as Ben pulled out onto the road. After a few minutes we pulled onto the high way.

" Your Dad's got a sweet ride." Riley said after a few moments of silence. I snickered. Only Riley would say something like that- the car was an old Cadillac that smelled like an old car, but ran surprisingly well.

" I think we should change clothes. We look, uh… conspicuous, don't you think?" Ben asked.

" Good idea, because there is _no way_ I am wearing _this_ in Philadelphia." I said gesturing to my heels, gown and Riley's sweat shirt (which was comfy).

" I'd love to go shopping too, but we have no money." Riley pointed out, his eyes still closed.

" Here, I took this from his house." Ben said, handing Abigail a familiar book. It was Patrick's first addition of Common Sense, and when Ben and I were in high school, we'd steal a few dollars from it to go buy snacks and drinks from the local store. " He usually tucks a few hundred dollars between those pages."

" Common Sense, how appropriate!" Abigail said, gently opening the weathered book and carefully shaking it, watching the money fall onto her lap.

" When do we get there? I'm hungry." Riley stated. After another second he added, " This car smells weird." I couldn't help but laugh loudly at that statement. Ben began to laugh as well and I shook my head.

" Gotta love him." I said smiling and leaning back into my seat, resting my head against the cold glass of the window. I stared at the lampposts, cars, and night sky flash by. I felt my eyelids slowly get heavier and I yawned. I heard Riley mutter something about the car smelling funnier than his van, and I smiled, glancing over at him.

He appeared to be almost asleep, his eyes closed, arms crossed, reclining himself as much as he could in the back seat beside me. I shut my eyes and thought about how cute Riley looked- with his glasses on, when he was confused and he stared into space, mouth hanging open, and when he was almost asleep, muttering about Patrick's car. I felt my cheeks heat up a bit, knowing a blush was now in place on my face. I shook my head in the slightest. I shouldn't be blushing unless I like him… but _do_ I like him? I felt myself relax further into oncoming sleep, and I drifted off, with one last thought:

I had a major crush on Riley Poole.

OOOO

I felt myself come into that state of sleep where your eyes are still closed, but your aware of things around you. I could feel warm sunlight on my face, and I felt myself pressed into something warm and comfortable. I felt myself smiling a bit, and I snuggled into whatever I was snuggling into. I felt whatever it was shift a bit and realized something was wrapped around me. I realized that whatever I was resting against was alive. I heard a car door open quietly. After a moment, I slowly opened my eyes, and blinked at the sunlight shinning in my eyes. I turned my head towards where I heard the car door open and saw Ben smiling at me from the drivers seat.

" Sleep well?" He asked.

" Yeah… but… what was I sleeping on…?" I asked. I looked over at what I was leaning on and discovered it wasn't a _what_ it was a _who_. I was snuggled into Riley. He was asleep, leaning against the seat with his arms wrapped around me and my head was pressed against his chest. I felt my face heat up, and I was pretty sure the blush on my cheeks was bright red.

" O-oh…" I said quietly, staring up at Riley's (adorable) sleeping face. I looked back over at Ben, who happened to now be grinning. " Why are you grinning? It's getting kinda weird."

" No reason." Ben said smirking.

" Is there any way you can wake him up? I don't think he'll let me go till he wakes up." I said wiggling in Riley's arms.

" Yeah, just cover your ears." He said. I wiggled my hands from Riley's chest and pressed them against my ears. " RILEY WAKE UP!" Ben shouted. Riley jumped and sat up, his arms still around me.

" Whoa! Whoa! What? What! Is Ian trying to kill us again!" Riley asked in a frenzy.

" No. Just thought I'd wake you up. We're heading into the city now. You fell asleep in the car, so I let you sleep just like you asked." Ben said before turning to start the car, just as Abigail got into the car, smiling at us. Riley blinked a few times before he looked down at me.

" Good morning." I said.

" Oh… hey… Oh!" He said realizing how we were sitting, and he removed his arms from around my waist. I sat up, stretching, and yawning. " I'm so sorry!" Riley said, a look of apology on his face.

" It's fine. Slightly awkward, but fine. You're a comfy pillow by the way." I mentioned, smiling slightly, and looking out the window as Ben pulled onto the highway again, heading towards Philadelphia. I glanced at Riley, who was smiling a bit.

" Okay, guys, here's how I think this should go today. Abigail, Arabella and I are going to go buy clothes, and Riley, I want you to go ahead and start work on the message from the Silence Dogood letters." Ben said. Riley sighed.

" Hey, what about you two go shopping, and then Riley and I go shopping some where else and I go help him? He might not remember how to decode the cipher." I said.

" Good idea." Ben said. I smiled a bit and held out my hand.

" Give me some money then." I said. Riley laughed. Ben rolled his eyes and dug some money out of his pocket and gave it to me. " Thank you, Ben!" I said.

Once we were in the city, Ben dropped Riley and I off at a mall, and drove off, trying to find a place to park, and another place to shop.

Riley and I headed into the mall, which was fairly crowded, seeing as it was somewhere around eleven. We walked into a store and I tried to find one outfit that would work, so I wouldn't have to try on a pile of clothes. I again felt my self-confidence problems arise again. I never enjoyed looking for clothes, because I never thought that even the nice things I bought looked good on me. Since I was usually made fun of because I wasn't as thin as everyone else, all those words came to me when I shopped.

I shut my eyes and sighed. I tried to push the thoughts away and I began to look through the racks of shirts and jeans. I finally managed to find a dark grey v-neck t-shirt that had a faded day of the dead skull on it, with small butterflies surrounding it, as well as a blue bird and some flowers. I searched through a few racks of jeans and found only two pairs of jeans in my size, which is never the best feeling in the world.

" I'm going to go try these on. Could you try and find me some sneakers or something?" I asked Riley. He nodded.

" Sure thing! Those heels look kinda painful." He said looking down at my feet, which were tinged red from the strain on them.

" They are." I said heading to the changing room. Thankfully the shirt fit- it was form fitting (which did bother me slightly), but only one of the pairs of jeans fit- a pair of dark blue skinny jeans. I sighed, sitting down on the stool in the changing room. I yanked the tags off the clothes and stared at myself in the mirror. I was glad that I heard Riley's voice before anymore bad thoughts could come to mind.

" Hey, Arabella? You in there?" I heard Riley ask. I stood and opened the door.

" Yep. Those the shoes?" I asked nodding to the box in his hands. He nodded.

" Yeah, I caught your shoe size on the bottom of the heels when you tossed them into the van last night." Riley said holding out the box. I took the box, noticing the familiar star on the box. I sat down and pulled the box open, smiling at the shoes within. They were a pair of converse inside. They were white high-tops, and they had what looked to be random phrases written in unreadable cursive font. I smiled and Riley handed me a pair of socks as well. I pulled the socks on then pulled on the shoes, lacing them up. I stood up and smiled.

" I love these." I said smiling at him. He smiled back a bit.

" I saw that you had a little collection of converse by the door in your apartment, so I saw these and thought they'd fit your personality well- you can't read what's written on it, but as the white fades, you could always pretend that it's the Declaration of Independence." Riley said with a shrug. I smiled at him.

" Thanks." I said smiling. I grabbed my dress, Riley's hoodie and tags, and left the heels in the dressing room. I grabbed a belt and walked over to the cashier, and she began to ring up the tags. I sighed, running a hand through my hair. Even though the shoes made me happy, I still hated the thoughts that had come to me while shopping. I had done so well with pushing those thoughts away when I wanted to, but today I just wasn't able to.

After paying for the clothes, we left and I tossed my dress into a trashcan, ignoring the weird looks I got. I put on my belt and Riley looked over at me. I noticed he was staring again.

" Um… Riley?" I asked, turning to face me. He finally made eye contact with me and nodded to the hoodie in my arms.

" You can keep that. I have too many of them anyway." Riley said. I smiled a bit and pulled it back on, letting it hang open. I looked down at the sleeves, which were falling over my hands again.

" I'll need to fix that." I said.

" I happen to have a pocketknife, you can cut the sleeves a bit when we get out of here." Riley said.

" Thanks!" I said giving him a one armed hug, pulling him towards the food court. " I say we get something to eat before going to the Franklin Institute."

" God, I could marry you." Riley muttered, wrapping an arm around my shoulder. I laughed a bit, looking off, not willing to show my face, knowing I was blushing again.

OOOO

I used Riley's pocketknife to cut the sleeves of the hoodie a few inches so the end of the sleeves hit my wrists. Handing his pocketknife back to him I asked,

" So, _why_ do you have a pocketknife?"

" Oh, you know, computer genius' need a way to protect themselves. And it also helps in cutting rope and stuff to use to tie things together." Riley explained. " Also, Ian has a pocketknife, so if he ever catches me by surprise, I'll be ready." I stopped walking for a moment.

" Wait. Doesn't Ian have a _gun_?" I asked, jogging to catch up with Riley again.

" Oh… I guess your right… well… um… I could hack into his computer and replace all of his important files just to piss him off." Riley said. I laughed.

" You really _are_ an evil computer genius." I said.

" And you're a history geek helping said evil computer genius." Riley pointed out.

" So that would make me…?" I asked.

" One of the evil history geeks helping the evil computer genius." Riley said. I smiled and looked down at my feet as we walked across the street. Riley held out an arm to stop me. He paused to get a copy of the local newspaper, and I waited.

" So, what was up with you at the mall?" Riley asked. I looked at him, a bit surprised.

" I'm sorry, what?" I asked.

" You know, you looked all sad and stuff. What was wrong?" Riley asked, pulling his glasses on again. Maybe if he hadn't been wearing the glasses, I wouldn't have told him. Maybe I would have anyway. But either way, I did reply.

" Were you ever… teased when you were in school?" I asked.

" Uh, yeah. Computer geek, remember?" He pointed out.

" Well, in addition to being teased because of skipping two grades and my obsession with history, I was teased because I wasn't as skinny as all the other girls. They made fun of me a lot because of that, and I began to believe what they said. So those negative thoughts come back to me every now and again. That just happened to be one of those moments." I explained with a sigh. Riley was quiet for a moment before he stopped walking.

" You shouldn't feel like that, Arabella." He said. I stopped and turned around to face him. " You are probably one of the most beautiful women I have ever met. I'm not just saying that." I blushed yet _again_ and looked down at the pavement.

" Thanks, Riley." I finally managed to say, smiling up at him. " And if we're being all truthful to each other, you are one of the cutest and most handsome guys I have ever met." I said smiling at him, walking up towards the Franklin Institute.

" Wait… what did you just say?" I heard Riley call after me. I smiled to myself and kept walking. " Arabella! Please tell me I heard you right! Arabella, wait up!"

_**Afterword: Hey I got this chapter written today! YAY! =D Hope you liked it! I know not a lot of this was actually in the movie, but I felt like with Arabella finally realizing she liked Riley, I might write a few scenes where we realize that Riley is starting to like her as well! I brought up Arabella's insecurities again, because she still probably thinks that Riley won't like her the way she likes him. Poor girl! But, she seems to fail to realize that Riley is flirting with her as well. He thought about her while picking out the shoes and let her keep his hoodie. So sweet!**_

_** Anyway, I would like to thank my loyal reviewers, **_Neverlandlover _**and**_ Phillipfan24._** Thanks for the reviews! They made me really happy! I hope to get up another chapter tomorrow on New Years! Reviews would be loved! Thanks!**_


	11. Chapter Ten: Piecing Things Together

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Ten: Piecing Things Together and Pulling Them Apart Again

I stopped walking right across the street from the Franklin Institute. The building was tall and the front was composed of Greek columns and in large letters "IN HONOR OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN" was at the top. Riley finally caught up with me and stopped to catch his breath.

" We can't go inside." I said. Riley gave me a look.

" _What_?" He asked.

" We can't go inside. If anyone there recognizes us, the FBI will be on us in a matter of minutes." I explained. Riley sighed.

" Then how are we going to get the message off of the letters?" Riley asked. I looked around and spotted a boy maybe ten or eleven sitting a few feet away. He was wearing a uniform from either a prep school or a Catholic school or something of the sort. I smirked.

" Think we could get that kid over there to do it for us?" I asked.

" Maybe." Riley said. " Lets go ask." We walked over and Riley sat next to him. " Hey." He said. The boy gave him a look and a nod. " You been inside there before?" Riley asked nodding towards the Franklin Institute. The boy nodded again. He had a backpack resting at his feet and he looked closed to grabbing it and leaving.

" Do you think you could do us a favor?" I asked. " We need someone to go inside the Franklin Institute and search the Silence Dogood letters for something." The kid looked skeptically at me and I grabbed Riley's wallet from his pocket and pulled out five dollars. " We'll pay you for each set of information you get us. I swear." I said holding the five dollars out to him. The kid stared at it a moment before looking at Riley.

" What do I have to do?" He asked. Riley sighed in relief.

" Okay. I have these sets of numbers." Riley said pulling out the piece of paper with the Ottendorf Cipher on it. Each of these numbers corresponds with the-" He began.

" Yeah, it's an Ottendorf Cipher." The kid interrupted. Riley gave him a look.

" Oh. So you know. Well, we need you to get the letters okay? Have anything I can write these on?" Riley asked. The kid pulled out a pile of sticky notes and held them out along with a pencil. " Thank you… okay… here is the first set. Go on!" Riley said handing him the sticky note and the money to the kid, who grabbed his backpack and ran across the street, into the Institute.

" Lets hope this works out, right?" I asked.

" Yeah. Oh, and you now owe me five dollars." Riley muttered, beginning to draw lines on the bottom of the newspaper, one line for each letter.

" Okay, I can pay that back." I said leaning back against the stonewall that was behind us. I pulled out my phone and began to fiddle with it.

OOOO

After fifteen minutes, the kid had gotten us all but the last four letters. We paid him each time he got us a set of letters, just like we promised. I began to help Riley piece the words together as the kid came running back to us.

" S, S, A, N, D." The kid told Riley, sitting between us.

" Okay." Riley murmured, looking down at the paper. " You sure this is right?" The kid gave him a look. " Okay…" Riley continued the letters from where the others had left off so it was, 'PASSAND'.

" No, no, it's an 'N'." The kid told him, pointing to the 'N' Riley had written.

" That _is_ an 'N'." Riley said.

" It doesn't look like an 'N'." The kid stated. Riley gave him a slightly annoyed look.

" You know what, here. Last one. Okay?" He said and handed the kid another dollar. " One more dollar."

" Thank you!" He said, taking the money.

" Go get the last four letters." I told him.

" Go get 'em Chief, come on!" Riley called after him, looking back down at the paper. " Does this look like an 'N'?" Riley asked. I looked down at it. It kind of looked like a lower case 'R' but that's the way I drew my 'N's.

" Yeah, it does. I write mine like that too." I admitted. He smiled at me.

" Okay, care to help divide out the rest of the letters?" He asked. I nodded. " Okay… the vision to see the treasured past comes as the timely shadow crosses in front of the house of pass and… pass and what?" Riley muttered. " Pass and…"

" Liberty Bell." I said. Riley pointed to a bus, that had a picture of the Liberty Bell on it, he probably meant to say something else, but I continued on speaking. " Yes, that bell, it was cast by two men who had the last names Pass and-" Riley cut me off.

" Stow. Come on! We have to go tell Ben and Abigail!" Riley said jumping up, grabbing my hand and pulling me off to Urban Outfitters, which was where the two were shopping (they had called to tell us where they were).

" How did you know the other man's last name was Stow?" I asked.

" Uh, the bus had a _giant_ picture on it of the Liberty Bell, and their names are on it so, I kinda figured that since 'Stow' is four letters and 'Pass' was already on there, that the two pieces fit together." Riley explained.

" That makes sense." I said.

" Yup." Riley said before we ran into the store, and up a small flight of stairs and up to Ben, who had the Declaration over his shoulder in its red canister, and Abigail, who were paying for clothes. " Hey!" Riley called. The two spun around to face us.

" Did you get it, Riley, Arabella?" Ben asked.

" Oh, we got it." Riley said. He looked down at the paper and read, " 'The Vision To See The Treasured Pass Comes As The Timely Shadow Crosses In Front Of The House of Pass and Stow.' And Pass and Stow, of course, referring to-"

" The Liberty Bell." Ben and Abigail interrupted, sending a look of annoyance across Riley's face.

" _Why_ do you _have to do that_?" He questioned. " Arabella's just as much as a history buff as you two and she doesn't do that!"

" Well, John Pass and John Stow-" Abigail began.

" Cast the bell after the original had been cracked while being tested." I finished. She gave me a small smile, which I returned.

" Okay… then what does the rest of this mean?" Riley asked. We all began to think.

" Wait a minute… 'The Vision To See The Treasured Past' must refer to a way to read the map." Ben said.

" I thought the cipher was the map." Riley said.

" No, it's not." I told him.

" It was a way to _find_ a way to read the map." Ben explained.

" And a way to read the map can be found where the timely shadow crosses in front of the Liberty Bell." Abigail said, walking over to Ben. Looks like they got some bonding done while Riley and I were away.

" No, no, no. The timely shadow will cross in front of 'The House of Pass and Stow', not the Bell. It would be the house the Bell had been in, so it would be Independence Hall." I corrected. I felt like I needed to set the correction.

" The 'Timely Shadow' is a specific time!" Abigail added. Abigail, Ben and I grinned.

" Um… uh… what time?" Riley asked. Ben's face went serious.

" What time… what time… Wait, wait, wait." Ben grinned and put a hand on Abigail's shoulder. " You're gonna love this." Ben walked over to the cashier and asked, " Excuse me, could I see one of those hundred dollar bills I used to pay you with?" The woman gave him a look and shook her head.

" No." She said.

" Oh, well," Ben set the Declaration down and began to remove his watch. " This is a divers watch, it's called a submariner, I use it to dive, it's actually quite valuable, you can use it as-"

" Whatever…" The cashier said taking the watch. I smirked and laughed a bit at Ben.

" Thank you." Ben turned to Abigail. " On the back of a hundred dollar bill is an etching of Independence Hall according to a painting-" Ben was interrupted momentarily by the cashier, who handed him a hundred dollar bill. " Thank you, done in the seventeen eighties, who- this guy, the artist, was actually a friend of Benjamin Franklin! Its wonderful!" Ben explained.

" Fascinating…" The cashier muttered.

" Hold this." Ben said, handing the Declaration over to Abigail.

" Thanks." She said. Ben suddenly began to pull it back, probably remembering last night when she tried to run off with it.

" I'm not going anywhere." She told him with a smile. He smiled back and looked down at the hundred-dollar bill.

" I think that if we look at this clock tower…" Ben muttered, grabbing a bottle of water to use as a magnifying glass. " we may be able to find the specific time…" We all waited for him to find the time.

" What do you see?" I asked.

" Two twenty two." Ben informed us.

" What time is it now?" Abigail asked.

" Almost three." The cashier said, using Ben's watch. Ben, Abigail and I sighed.

" We missed it… _of course we missed it_…" I grumbled.

" No we didn't." Riley said. We all looked at him, dumbfounded. " We didn't miss it because… be… you don't know this?" He asked us. " I know something about history that you don't know!" Riley said with a grin.

" We'd be very excited to learn about it, Riley." Ben said in a monotone.

" Hold on one second, let me just… take in this moment. This is… this is cool… Is this how you feel all the time?" Riley asked mostly Ben, but also me as well. " Because, you know… except for now, of course-"

" _Riley_!" Abigail and I said.

" _Alright._ What I know, is that daylight savings wasn't established till World War One. If it's three PM now, okay, that means in seventeen seventy-six, it would be _two_ PM." Riley explained.

" Riley, you're a genius." Ben told Riley, handing the money back, and receiving his watch again. Riley smiled happily.

" Good job." I told him, giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before following Ben and Abigail.

" Yeah…" Riley muttered, standing there a moment. He quickly began to catch up with us. " Do you actually know _who_ the first person to _suggest_ daylight savings was?" He asked, obviously hoping we didn't know, so he could still be king of the moment.

" Benjamin Franklin." Ben, Abigail and I said in unison. We heard Riley stamp his foot and I laughed a bit as we headed out of the store, and towards Independence Hall.

" We're getting so close." I said to Ben as I caught pace with him. He smiled at me.

" Who would have known that we would have gotten this far. I only dreamed of getting this far…" Ben said still smiling.

" I know. I still remember when you first told me about the treasure. You thought I was going to call you crazy, but I believed you and you were shocked for the rest of the day." I said tucking my hair behind my ear, smiling.

" And now our persistence has paid off." Ben said.

" Indeed it has. Look. We're here." I said as we rounded a corner and spotted the top of Independence Hall. We managed to merge into a tour group, and as we walked inside, we quickly diverged from the path and followed Ben to a flight of off limits stairs. We quickly ascended the staircases and Ben opened a door, stepping through to another set of stairs, and those led up to the bell tower. Riley shut the door behind us and we climbed the rest of the way to the top.

Ben pushed open a hatch and climbed through, helping Abigail out, then helping me up, and I was careful not to hit my head on the bell hanging above us. Riley gazed up at the bell as he appeared out of the darkness of the staircase.

" What bell is this?" He asked.

" It's the Centennial Bell. It replaced the Liberty Bell in eighteen seventy-six." Ben explained as we headed towards the direction the shadow of Independence Hall was falling. He checked his watch and then we all looked at the shadow hitting a brick structure on the roof below. The shadow of the very top of the steeple was hitting a certain point on it.

" There it is." I muttered.

" Alright, I'm going to go down there, meet me in the signing room." Ben planned, as he headed back towards the stairs, Abigail following.

" Alright, lets go." She said. Riley walked over to look at the shadow. He smirked as he checked his own watch.

" Three twenty two. My idea." He said with a grin. I smiled at him and pulled him back towards the stairs. Abigail, Riley and I all headed back down to the signing room, where we began to wait for Ben.

" So, you and Ben have been searching for the treasure since you were kids?" Abigail asked me. I smiled at her.

" Yeah, I believed him when he said it was real, and we were searching for clues since then. But it wasn't until a few days ago that we got a lead on the clue thanks to Riley and Ben finding a ship called _The Charlotte_, and that clue has led us here. It's amazing, it honestly is." I told her, smiling the whole time. She smiled back.

" She works for the Smithsonian, too. She loves history, just like Ben." Riley added on.

" If we don't get arrested, when all of this is over I'll take you on a tour of the American History Museum- you could pick up on some more information and maybe one day out history Ben or maybe even me." I told Riley. He grinned.

" Your on." He said. Just then, we saw Ben walk into the signing room, hiding something under his jacket. " Hey, what'd you score?" Riley asked as we all swiftly walked over to him.

" I found _this_." Ben said holding out what looked like a pair of glasses, with four different little circular pieces of colored glass that could be lifted or put in place by pressing down on the ends of the wire they were attached to. I stared at them in awe. " It's some kind of ocular device." Ben said. Riley carefully took them. " The Vision to See the Treasured Past." Ben smiled at me and I smiled back. We were even closer. " Let me take this." Ben said taking the Declaration and walking over to a windowsill

" They're like early American X-ray specs!" Riley said holding them out and looking through them slightly before handing them to me. I carefully handled them, not believing I was holding something that had been hidden for over a hundred years.

" Benjamin Franklin invented something like these." Abigail said.

" Uh, I think he invented these." Ben told us, carefully pulling the Declaration out of the grey canister.

" He's right. If these were invented by him, it fits the time span perfectly." I agreed.

" So… what do we do with them?" Riley asked, taking the glasses back.

" We look through them, of course." I said playfully nudging his shoulder a bit. Riley began to put them on but stopped when Abigail asked for his help holding the Declaration. All of us carefully took a hold of it and Ben unrolled it. As he stopped he let out a breath.

" What?" Riley whispered.

" Its just that the last time this was here, it was being signed." Ben said. I smiled at him.

" It's amazing, right?" I added. Riley sighed.

" Arabella, Ben, there's another tour coming." He pointed out.

" Right." I said as we carefully flipped the Declaration over.

" Careful…" Abigail muttered.

" Spectacles." Ben said and Riley quickly handed them to him. Ben put them on and let out a shocked breath. " Wow…" He muttered.

" What do you see?" Abigail asked eagerly.

" What is it? Is it the treasure map?" Riley asked excitedly, a smile forming on his face.

" It says 'Heere at the wall', spelled with two 'e's. Here, take a look." Ben said handing them to me first. I looked down at the Declaration and gasped quietly.

" Oh my dear Lord…" I muttered. On the back of the Declaration I saw the words 'Heere at the wall' on the back in a haze of purplish green. The words appeared to be on a piece of paper that wrapped around an intricate cross. I grinned and I pulled the spectacles off and held them out again. Riley reached for them but Abigail grabbed them first and he scowled at her.

" Wow." Abigail said as she gazed down at it.

" Why can't they say just go to this place, here's the treasure, spend wisely?" Riley asked.

" Because it wouldn't be as much fun." I told him. Ben looked out the window and I followed his gaze, spotting one of Ian's men I recognized from the catering van.

" Oh no…" We said in unison. Riley ran over to the window and pulled the curtains back.

" How'd they find us?" He asked.

" Ian has nearly unlimited resources." Ben said as he and Abigail began to roll up the Declaration. I walked to stand beside Riley as we stared out at Ian's men. " And he's smart." He added.

" I don't think we can get out of here without being spotted." Abigail said.

" Well we don't want him to have the Declaration _or_ the glasses, but we especially don't want him to have them both together." Ben said.

" So what do we do?" Riley asked.

" We separate them. Like taking a lock away from its key. We're splitting up." I finished Ben's thought. He nodded.

" Good idea." Abigail said.

" Really?" Riley questioned.

" I'll take this," Ben said grabbing the empty red canister. " And that," He took the spectacles from Abigail. " You keep that." Ben said gesturing to the Declaration and the grey canister. " Meet me at the car, call me if you have any problems." Ben said.

" Like if we get caught or killed?" Riley specified. Ben turned to look at Riley.

" Yeah, that would be a _big_ problem." He said. " Take care of her." Ben said looking at Abigail and then at me.

" I will." Both Riley and Abigail said at the same time. I rolled my eyes at the two. Ben left first, and after a minute, we walked out of the door and into the open.

" Lets walk this way." Abigail said, turning left. Riley and I both kept walking straight for a moment before turning and running to catch up with her. We headed towards Patrick's Cadillac through a crowded street, and we hoped we were loosing them, till we heard a shout behind us.

It was time to run, wasn't it?

_**Afterword: Here's the next chapter! Hope you all liked it! HAPPY NEW YEARS EVE! =D Wow, the last day in 2011 and a whole new year ahead of us! =D I want to thank my reviewers yet again:**_ Neverlandlover, Hawk's-GaL4077, _**and**_ Phillipfan24. _**Thanks for the reviews, they make me happy! Since I'm staying up all night like every New Years Eve, I could possibly post another chapter tonight, no promises though. One will be up tomorrow though! Reviews would be loved! Thanks!**_


	12. Chapter Eleven: Near Death Experience

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Eleven: Near Death Experience

" There! There!" We heard someone shout behind us.

" Riley!" Abigail said, stopping Riley, who grabbed my arm to stop me. We all turned around to see two of Ian's men following us- one of them was kind of stocky and the other one was bald and menacing looking. They started to run towards us, and we began to run _away_ from them. The crowded sidewalk proved hard to run through, but we managed. We turned a corner and down an almost abandoned sidewalk, and spotting a door I said,

" Quick, in here!" I opened the door and let Riley and Abigail run inside before I ran in after them. We were in an indoor market place, and people gave us odd looks as we ran around.

" Come on, this way!" Riley said pulling me to the left. When we didn't hear Abigail, we turned and saw her running the other way.

" She'll find somewhere to hide, we need to hide as well." I said. Riley nodded and we continued to try and find some place to hide. We eventually found an empty sellers booth for t-shirts, and dove under the table, which was covered in a red tablecloth, and was long enough to hide us. We sat under the table, our knees up to our chests and our backs hunched.

" So, who's the bald dude?" I asked Riley, trying to catch my breath. In only asked about him, because he scared me the most.

" Shaw. He threatened me with a gun back in the Arctic Circle. He isn't the best guy." Riley explained, out of breath himself.

" Well that isn't cool." I said. Riley chuckled. I carefully peered under the tablecloth, trying to catch a glimpse of Shaw or the other guy. To my surprise, the stockier one was standing right in front of the table. I also spotted his gun. My eyes widened and I quickly dropped the edge of the tablecloth and sat back up. Riley opened his mouth to say something but I grabbed him and covered his mouth in one quick movement, which sent us both onto the ground, shaking the table slightly. I squeezed my eyes shut and prayed that the dude didn't notice. After nothing happened for a moment, I released my hold on Riley and peeked back into the market. The man was gone.

" Oh thank God…" I muttered, relaxing. Riley moved my hand from over his mouth and looked at me.

" What was that about?" He asked.

" Oh, the other guy who isn't Shaw was standing right in front of us." I explained.

" Ah. We should probably go find Abigail." Riley said.

" Probably." I agreed.

" So… Could you… move off of me?" He asked. I suddenly noticed that when I knocked us to the ground, I landed mostly on top of him.

" Oh! Sorry!" I said, blushing and rolling off of him and getting out from under the table. Riley emerged from under the table, his cheeks pink as well. " Again, I'm sorry." I told him as we began to search for Abigail.

" No, it's fine, it's fine." Riley tried to assure me.

" You sure?" I asked.

" Kind of awkward, but yes, I'm sure it's fine." Riley said smiling at me. I smiled back and then I spotted a familiar blond woman, hiding behind a stand of flowers. Riley reached out and grabbed her shoulder, making her jump and squeak.

" Sh!" Riley said.

" Where were you two?" She asked.

" Uh, _hiding_!" Riley told her. " Come on, let's go!" We all bolted out of the market place and down the street. We were headed towards City Hall, near where Patrick's car was. We ran across a street, almost getting hit by a small white Toyota. The driver honked at us and I yelled 'sorry' to them as we kept running. We knew the men were still close behind us, so we didn't stop running as we pushed through a crowd of people. Abigail and I managed to get to the curb of the street, but Riley got caught up in the crowd.

" Arabella! Abigail!" He called. The two of us spun around to face him, but as we turned back, Abigail ran into a biker, and the Declaration flew out of her hands and into the street as she fell. A car passed over it, leaving it unharmed. Since I was still standing, I took off into the street, trying to rescue the precious document.

I bent down to grab it, but I heard a large horn and looked up to see a huge semi truck headed for me. I stood frozen in shock, unable to move. I felt someone grab me around the waist and pull me out of the way, then hit the pavement. I grabbed onto whoever it was, and opened my eyes, and saw Riley. I gave him a tight hug before the three of us looked out to the street, and saw the Declaration in its canister just sitting there.

A man with blond hair and a blue striped button down shirt walked into the street and bent down and picked up the Declaration. It was Ian. He opened the canister and looked inside, grinning at what he saw. We sat there on the cold pavement, helpless. Ian made eye contact with me again and smirked. I felt Riley's arms around my waist again as he began to pull me up. Abigail, Riley and I all scrambled to our feet and took off running. Riley had taken a hold of my elbow, which quickly slid down and he took my hand. I gripped his hand tightly as we kept running, and we only slowed down a few minutes later.

" We need to call Ben." I said.

" I'll do it." Riley said releasing my hand and grabbing his phone. He dialed Ben's number and held it up to his ear.

" We lost it." Riley said after a moment. There was a pause. " We lost the Declaration, Ian took it…" He listened to Ben. " Yeah, yeah, yeah, the three of us are alright. Ben, I'm sorry." After another moment, Riley hung up and he sighed. " Lets get back to the car."

We rounded the corner to get to the car, only to find Ben being detained by men in suits, and I assumed they were the FBI. He looked at us briefly, sending us a silent message. We turned and quickly went back around the corner.

" This is bad. This is _so_ bad. This is beyond bad! This is _terrible_…" I muttered as we walked into a small park. Riley and I plopped onto a bench and Abigail began to pace in front of us. Riley put his head in his hands and looked at the ground.

" What are we going to do?" I asked.

" I don't know…" Riley groaned. Abigail stayed silent and she began to pace behind us. Abigail stopped and grabbed the back of the bench, looking at Riley.

" Riley, do you know how to get in touch with Ian?" She asked. Riley gave her a look of confusion.

" Excuse me?" He asked.

" You see, I have an idea, we just need to get in touch with him." Abigail said.

" I might have his number on me…" Riley said pulling out his phone and flipping through. " Uh, yeah, here is his cell phone number." Riley said handing Abigail his phone. She walked off to call Ian. Riley ran a hand through his hair, messing it up. I looked over at him.

" Hey, Riley?" I asked. He looked at me in response. " Thanks for kind of saving my life." I said. He smiled sweetly at me.

" I couldn't let you die, Arabella. It wouldn't be nice of me." Riley replied. I smiled at him. " Besides, it's fun being the good guy." He added with a grin. I laughed a bit when we heard Abigail ask,

" What, I'm sorry, I don't understand." We looked back over at her, and she stood with a questioning look on her face. " You mean Arabella?" She asked. My eyes widened. What on earth could Ian want with _me_? " Um… okay… I'll give the phone to her." Abigail walked over and handed me the phone. I slowly took it and held it up to my ear.

" Hello?" I asked as I stood and walked a few feet away, towards the fountain.

" Hello. I believe your name is Arabella?" Ian's voice asked from the other end of the line.

" Yes, it is. What do you want?" I asked. Ian chuckled.

" A bit impatient are we?" He asked.

" I'm not impatient, I'm upset. You've been chasing us for the past few days. Oh, and you almost blew up both of my best friends, and nearly shot me last night." I said with anger in my voice.

" Now, I don't think that's the reason you wanted to call. Now, your friend Abigail told me she wants to call the shots. That isn't going to happen." Ian said.

" Oh, I see. Well, if you didn't know, Riley is a computer genius. We can trace your phone through GPS if we wanted to. We could be on you in a matter of minutes and take the Declaration back, Ian. I swear to God we can do that. So, I say that right now, we have an advantage over you, so I don't see why we shouldn't be calling the shots." I told Ian. There was a pause and I assumed Ian was thinking.

" Tell me what I get in return." Ian said. I looked over at Riley and Abigail, who were listening.

" What do you get in return?" I asked, hoping they could help me out. Riley got a panicked look on his face before Abigail mouthed, 'the treasure'. " We'll give you the treasure. We'll help you find it, and you can have it. But first, we need Ben out of FBI custody." I said.

" That can be arranged. Where should I bring Ben when we get him out?" Ian asked. I racked my brain for a moment, remembering the clue. 'Heere at the wall'. A thought popped into my head. " The intersection of Wall Street and Broadway in New York." I told him.

" That can also be arranged. I'll be seeing you soon, Arabella. I look forward to the moment we can be _properly_ introduced." Ian said. And with that, he hung up. I handed Riley his phone back.

" Well?" He asked.

" I'm calling the shots now. Come on, we need to get to New York." I said. I sighed at their confused expressions. " I'll explain on the way."

OOOO

Once we made it to New York (we took a coach bus there. Riley slept the whole way) we had received a few more calls from Ian and were sitting in a café, just across the street from the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway. Riley had his glasses on and was typing away on a computer, and Abigail was watching the window. I stood beside Riley and I pulled out my phone and called Ian's number again, only this time it was answered by one of Ian's men, and that meant that they had Ben.

" Yeah, hello?" The man asked.

" May I speak to Ben?" I asked.

" Hello?" Came Ben's voice.

" Hi, Ben. How's your day going?" I asked kindly.

" It's going fine, Arabella. So, what, are you working for Ian now?" He asked and I could tell he was smiling.

" Well, it turns out, breaking someone out of FBI custody is, guess what? A federal crime! It helps to have someone who knows how to commit those. So, we called him and made a deal. But, it wasn't my idea. It was Abigail's. Thank her." I told Ben.

" You're- you're alright, yeah? You're okay?" He asked.

" Yeah, I am. So are Riley and Abigail. Riley's right here next to me. He's doing something all tech-y with a computer." I said.

" I'm tracking him through GP-" I put the phone up to Riley's ear. " Hey! I'm tracking you through the GPS in Shaw's phone, if they take one turn we don't like we'll know it so-" Riley explained and I pulled the phone away from him, finishing for him.

" If Ian tries to, you know, betray us, we can call the FBI and tell them where you are and then tell them where Ian was and they can take Ian down." I said.

" And where would that be?" Ben asked.

" Right across the street from where we're hiding, at the intersection of Wall Street and Broadway." I said looking out the window at Ian, who was pacing on the sidewalk out side the Trinity Church.

" You figured out the clue." Ben said, and I could hear a smile in his voice.

" You insult me, of _course_ I figured out the clue- 'Heere at the wall', Wall Street and Broadway. But um… there's a catch. The only way we could get this far was by making Ian believe he could have the treasure." I told Ben.

" He's here!" Riley said and I hung up the phone, as we all looked out the window. " Here we go." Riley said. We watched as Ben got out of the car. He and Ian exchanged a few words. Ian then set the Declaration on the top of the car, and set down a smaller white object. Ben began to speak and he gestured to a few things around him, and I knew he was telling Ian about the clue. He then grabbed the two objects and began to leave, but Ian stopped him. Ben told him something, and Ian smirked, stepping closer to him. After another moment, Ian looked over at a black car, and Ben looked over at it as well, and his face became shocked. There was another moment and Ian began to walk off and Ben looked across the street at us. He sighed and Shaw and another man walked into the café, and grabbed our arms, escorting us out of the café and towards Trinity Church. I then saw Patrick being led across the street, his hands duct taped together. Oh no. They had Patrick. This wasn't good. We were shoved across the street and I sighed as we neared the church. I had a feeling that at this moment, none of this could end well.

_**Afterword: There's chapter eleven! I hope you guys had a good New Years Eve and a wonderful New Years day! =D I want to thank my reviewers: **_Hawk's-GaL4077, HeraOfTheStars, _**and**_ Phillipfan24. _**Thanks so much for reviewing you guys! It made my day all the more better! =D The next chapter will be up soon! (probably tomorrow!) Reviews are loooooooovved! =D Thanks!**_


	13. Chapter Twelve: Falling In More Ways

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Twelve: Falling In More Way Than One

We entered the Trinity Church, which was empty besides Ben, Ian, Patrick and his men. Patrick was sitting on a pew and Ben and Ian were discussing something as we walked in, escorted by two of Ian's men. We were forced to sit towards the back of the church, and we watched as Ben and Ian sat down.

" I don't think this will end well." I muttered.

" You're probably right about that." Riley said with a sigh.

" We're gonna end up dead or something." I said noticing that everyone of Ian's men- including Ian- had some sort of handgun.

" I refuse to end up dead." Riley said. " I haven't done half the things I want to do in my life time."

" Well, at the moment, let's just hope we don't end up in jail." Abigail added. Ian pulled out the Declaration and Ben put on the spectacles, looking at the back. After a tense moment Ben took a hold of the Declaration and handed the spectacles to Ian, who then put them on and looked at the back of the Declaration.

" Parkington Lane." I heard Ian say.

" _Beneath_ Parkington Lane." Ben corrected.

" Well, why would the map lead us here, and then take us somewhere else? What's the purpose?" Ian asked, no longer whispering.

" Just another clue!" Patrick interjected.

" Dad!" Ben said. " Your right, Parkington Lane has to be around here somewhere.

" A street inside the church?" Ian asked.

" Not inside. Beneath. Beneath the church." Ben corrected. I felt someone take a sudden hold on my arm before they yanked me up and out of the pew. Riley and Abigail were then dragged from their seats and we were led to a door that I presumed led down to the basement. Ian and Shaw walked through first, then Riley was shoved after them, and so was I.

" Start looking." Ian instructed as we came down the stairs. Riley began to look and as I began to help him, I felt someone's hand on my shoulder. I turned around and saw it was Ian. " Arabella, I presume?" Ian asked.

" Ian Howe, my captor, I presume?" I asked raising an eyebrow. He chucked and shook his head.

" You're making me sound like some kind of bad guy." Ian said.

" Maybe that's because you _are_. You just fail to see that because you're so single minded. You're just set on getting the treasure." I told him. He raised an eyebrow.

" Isn't that what you're mind is set on?" He asked.

" Yeah, but I don't want it for the money. I want it because it will help clear Ben's family name. Because it would be thousands of years of lost history, something the world could see and think about how amazing it is. I'm not some treasure hunter in search of fame and glory and money, like you. I want to find this treasure for _real_ reasons. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to help Riley find Parkington Lane." I said shrugging his hand from my shoulder and walking over to help Riley. Riley had found a wall that had tombs on it, and they were all clearly very old. Abigail also joined us as we began reading the names on the tombs.

" Hey! Park- I found it! Him!" Riley called out. I rushed over and saw that Riley _had_ found Parkington Lane. Ian swiftly walked over and called,

" Ben!" And then Ben ran over, and looked at the name. " It's a name." Ian shined a flashlight on it, and we saw the symbol for the Free Masons at the top.

" Parkington Lane." Ben said.

" He was a third degree master mason, of the blue- HEY!" I shouted as one of Ian's men ran forward and began to beat the tomb's front with a wrench. He managed to open the front of it by destroying it, and we saw the coffin inside. I stared in shock at what had just been done to such a historic grave, but didn't have any time to think more about it, because Shaw, Ian, Ben and two other of Ian's men were pulling the coffin out.

There was a crack and a crash as the skeleton of Parkington Lane crashed onto the floor. Everyone let out shouts of surprise and disgust as we all stared at the skeleton.

" Be careful no one steps in him." One of Ian's men said. Riley covered his eyes and dropped his head onto my shoulder, clearly not wanting to look at Parkington Lane's remains. I pat his back and watched as they lowered the coffin down on the floor.

" You can look." I told Riley. Riley lifted his head and everyone crowded around the now empty tomb. Shaw shone the flashlight into the tomb and we saw that there was a tunnel inside, coated in cobwebs.

" Okay… who wants to go down the creepy tunnel in the tomb first?" Riley asked as he stared into the cobweb-ridden tunnel.

" Right, McGregor, Victor, you stay here. If anyone should come out without me, well, use your imaginations." Ian told his men. He looked at Ben. " Shall we?" He handed Ben a flashlight, which he turned on, and Ben pulled himself into the cramped space with the Declaration, and began to crawl down the tunnel. Ian followed, then Patrick followed, then Shaw went inside, and Riley helped Abigail in. He took my hand and helped me get into the tunnel, which was also coated in dust.

Eventually there was a drop- a staircase. I shifted myself so I was sitting and I found the stairs and suddenly everything was illuminated. I saw that Ben had a lit torch, and was still leading the way down the now tall tunnels and staircases. You could tell everything was old by the looks of what was used to cement the stones together as well as the cobwebs and the musty smell. I looked back at Riley who was looking around at everything in wonder, and noticed that Abigail had some how managed to end up behind Riley. As we finished coming down the stairs, I saw that the door way was blocked towards the bottom by a small plank of wood. I carefully stepped over it and looked over at Ben, who was standing off to the side to light everyone's way. I gave him a quick hug before giving him a small smile and continued to walk. I paused to wait for Riley, turning to watch him. He put a hand on Ben's shoulder before he continued to walk.

While waiting for Riley to catch up, I saw Ben pull Abigail back towards him before he kissed her. I couldn't help but smile as they pulled away from each other, smiling. I was glad Ben had found someone he actually liked, and that Abigail probably feels the same way about him. As Riley caught up, I smiled at him and we walked further down the passageway. I felt the feeling of walls close to my shoulders suddenly disappear.

" What's this?" Ian asked. I could feel a slight draft, and knew that we were in a larger room. Everyone let Ben lead again. From the light of his torch, we saw that we were standing on a wooden platform of some sort. There was a large hold in the wooden planks, and we all stepped over it, and towards a railing.

" It's a chandelier." Ben said. I walked up beside him and pointed at a small troph on the chandelier.

" There. Light it." I told him. Ben placed the torch against the troph and three layers on the chandelier lit up, casting a warm glow around us.

" Here." Ben said handing Ian the torch. He took a hold of the rope attached to the chandelier and he pulled on it, seeing as it was attached to a pulley. The chandelier moved to the center of the gaping hole before us as Ben tied off the rope. I looked around and grinned. There were mazes of stairs and early elevators.

" Wow." Riley muttered.

" Look at all the elevators." Ben said.

" The dumbwaiter system." Patrick added.

" How do a bunch of guys with hand-tools build all this?" One of Ian's men asked.

" The same way they built the pyramids and the Great Wall of China." Ben told him.

" Yeah… The aliens helped them." Riley said. I giggled quietly and shook my head. Riley looked at me and smiled before looking back out over all of the impressive structures. I looked down and the hole was over two hundred feet deep at least. Eventually, all you could see was black nothingness. And that freaked me out. I took a step back and kept my eyes on the wood at my feet. I wasn't all that big on heights.

" Right, let's go." Ian said.

" It's a long way to fall." Shaw said.

" Yeah… It is…" I muttered.

" I'm not going out on that thing after two hundred years of termite damage and rot!" Patrick told everyone as he was handed the torch.

" For once I agree with Patrick!" I called out.

" Dad. Do what he says." Ben told him. Patrick nodded and began to walk down a small set of stairs. We all began to file down the rickety stairs and to make it worse some landings didn't have railings. I could feel myself shaking and it was getting worse with each creak of the wood.

" Watch your step here." Patrick told us as he led the way. " Right under the Trinity Graveyard. It's probably why no body found this." Patrick said. There was a sudden loud rumbling that shook everything. I quickly stood against the wall and looked around.

" What is that?" Riley asked.

" Subway." Ian said. Everyone nodded and began to walk again. After one step, Shaw fell through the wood and plunged downwards. I let out a small yell and grabbed Riley in a hug, completely terrified. He hugged back and we watched as Shaw crashed through another landing before disappearing into darkness. Everyone was silent in shock.

There was another crack as the landing Ben, Riley, Abigail and I were standing on shifted and began to fall downward. I slipped out of Riley's arms and Riley quickly jumped, and I saw him land on a staircase. Ben tried to grab onto me, but I felt myself begin to slide off the edge. I let out a yell as I heard people shouting my name. I gripped onto the edge of the broken platform, feeling nothing but air below me. I wasn't ready to follow the path Shaw had taken. There was another crack and the section I was on broke off. I screamed as I plunged through the air.

I landed with a thud and all of my breath left me. I had landed hard on my side and I could feel my feet dangling off the edge of another platform. I felt pain in my upper arm and I just lay there for a long moment, trying to catch my breath.

" Arabella!" I heard Riley shout. I heard running footsteps and I began to try and sit up. I felt Riley's arms wrap around me and drag me back from the edge of the landing. I pulled myself up and hugged Riley tightly, feeling a few tears roll down my cheeks. I had thought for sure that I was dead. That brief moment as I fell through the air, I was sure I would fall into that black hole of nothing and end up like Shaw.

" Oh my God…" I muttered into Riley's shoulder. I could feel myself shaking and I was momentarily oblivious to everything that was happening. I felt Riley's hand smoothing out my hair, and his other arm was wrapped tightly around my waist.

" Are you okay?" Riley asked with worry, pulling away just enough to look at me. I nodded.

" Shaken up most definitely. I'll probably have a bruise on my arm too." I told him.

" I… When I saw you lying there, I thought you were dead." Riley told me. I saw the worried look on his face, and his bright blue eyes were all teary. I smiled a bit at him.

" Thank God I'm not." I said.

" I'm _so_ glad you're not." Riley said quietly. He brushed some dirt off my cheek, and he leaned down and kissed me. He kissed me. Oh my God! He _actually_ liked me! I couldn't help but smile and pull him closer. I kissed back for a moment before another loud crack made both of us pull away to find out what was happening.

Ben was holding onto the edge of a dangling elevator, gripping Abigail's hand as she dangled over nothing, and the Declaration was teetering dangerously on the edge.

" Oh my God!" I said covering my mouth.

" The Declaration…" Abigail muttered.

" Do you trust me?" Ben asked her.

" Yes." She told him. Just as the broken elevator swung over a landing, Ben let go of Abigail's hand and grabbed the Declaration, and slung it over his shoulder. Abigail hit the landing with a thud and she quickly sat up to see if Ben had got the Declaration. There was another crack as one of the ropes on the elevator snapped and Ben fell. He grabbed onto the corner of the platform with one hand, swinging around precariously.

" Oh no! Ben!" Abigail shouted in worry.

" Come on, Ben!" I shouted in encouragement. Ben grabbed onto the wood with his other hand and tried to pull himself up but the plank snapped off. He held on to the last available plank, and I noticed that the plank was beginning to pry off.

" Hang on!" Abigail shouted. Ben looked down at the pit below him and he looked back at the wood. Suddenly a rope dropped down and Patrick called,

" Son!" Ben gratefully grabbed onto it, and then swung over to a landing. Riley and I let out a sigh of relief before we began to walk towards them. Riley still had his arm around my waist, and I didn't mind. I leaned into him as we walked.

Abigail rushed over to Ben.

" I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry I dropped you, I had to save the Declaration." Ben told Abigail, holding her shoulders.

" No! Don't be! I would have done exactly the same thing to you." Abigail told him. After a moment Ben said,

" Really?"

" I would have dropped you both!" Riley called out to them, and then muttered, " Freaks." I laughed and shook my head. We reached them and stood there. I was standing closer to the edge, and was glad Riley's arm was still around me, because I wasn't trusting the wooden landings anymore. I noticed Ben looking pointedly at Riley's hand on my waist then looking up at me, raising an eyebrow. I smiled and raised an eyebrow at him. Ben smiled and shook his head as Ian, Patrick, and one of Ian's men came down on what was probably the only stable elevator.

" Get on." Ian said.

" Ian. It's not worth it." Ben told him, still trying to catch his breath. His face was dirty and sweat was beading on his forehead.

" Could you imagine that any one of your lives was of more value to me than Shaw's? _We go on_." Ian said.

" Status quo. Keep the status quo." Patrick muttered.

" Ian, this is extremely dangerous! We don't know how stable the elevator is, if we all get on it could break-" Ben began but the next thing I knew, I had been yanked away from Riley, hauled over the railing, and onto the elevator. I felt Ian pull me against his chest so I was facing the others, and then I felt a gun press to the underside of my jaw.

" NO!" Riley shouted.

" IAN!" Ben and Abigail yelled and glared. I squeezed my eyes shut for a moment, breathing fast. I opened my eyes to see Ben, Abigail, and Riley's terrified and angry faces.

" Now, if you don't cooperate, I'll send a bullet into her brain. And I'd _hate_ to damage such an intelligent brain and _such_ a pretty face." Ian said releasing my waist a moment to brush the hair out of my face. He quickly put his arm around my waist again to keep me from moving.

Ben stepped over the railing and onto the elevator, followed by Abigail and then by Riley. Ian didn't move the gun from under my jaw as the elevator lowered. I saw Patrick's face composed in a look of worry as he watched the gun in Ian's hand. My heart began to race every time Ian shifted or if the gun moved. Riley stood beside me, looking absolutely furious as he stared at Ian's face.

" Okay, now what?" Riley asked as the elevator stopped.

" This is where it leads." Patrick said. Ben tossed a rope around a piece of wood at the edge of a broken landing, pulled us over and then tied the elevator off so it wouldn't move and he hopped off, taking the torch from Abigail, and then Riley, Patrick and the last of Ian's men (currently in the tunnels with us) got off. Ian then carefully stepped off, still holding me hostage. Once we stepped off the elevator I felt the pressure of the gun leave the underside of my jaw. Ian released me and I quickly stepped away from him. Everyone (save Ian and the other dude) let out a sigh of relief.

" Okay, this way." Ben said, leading the way down more stairs. Riley hugged me for another long moment before kissing my forehead and then we continued walking. Ben stopped, lighting two torches on the inside of a doorway. We walked into an empty room, save one lantern in the center of the room. We all looked around, hoping to find something- another clue, another whatever that could help us out. We found nothing but cold stonewalls, cobwebs and dirt. Patrick lit the lantern in the center of the room with the torch he had taken from the wall.

" What's this?" Riley asked.

" So where's the treasure?" Ian's man asked.

" Well?" Ian asked. Ben looked down at his feet and sighed.

" _This_ is it? We came all this way for a dead end!" Riley exclaimed.

" Yes…" Ben said with a sigh, clearly distressed at the fact nothing was here. I put my hand on his shoulder and ran a hand through my hair. Could this really be what was left? A room and a lantern? Could the Templars have moved the treasure again to keep it safe?

Ian let out a laugh of disbelief and ran a hand through his hair.

" There's _gotta_ be something more!" Riley insisted.

" Riley, there's nothing more." Ben tried to convince him, giving him the Declaration and the torch.

" There's another clue-" I began. Riley began to agree but Ben interrupted us.

" There are no more clues! That's it! Okay? It's over! End of the line! End of the road! The _treasure is gone_! Moved! Taken somewhere else!" Ben yelled at me, letting out all the anger that had been building up all those years when people told him the treasure wasn't real. My eyes began to tear up a bit. Ben and I had been through all of this together, and now he was giving up. He was just throwing in the towel, not wanting to try and go on.

" You're not playing games with me, are you, Ben?" Ian asked walking over to us.

" Of course he's not! Do you _not_ see the empty room around you!" I yelled. Ian looked at Ben and I.

" You both know where it is." He said.

" No." Ben said.

" Okay. Go." He told the other man, who ran back to the elevator, carrying a torch. Ian began to follow him.

" Hey." I said.

" Wait a minute!" Ben said.

" Hey! Wait, wait, wait!" Riley called, as we all followed Ian back towards the elevator. He was going to leave us.

" Ian, wait!" I called.

" Ian!" Abigail called as well.

" We'll be trapped!" Riley pointed out. Ian jumped up onto the elevator as it began to rise.

" Don't do this!" Ben said.

" You can't just leave us here!" Abigail told Ian.

" Yes I can. Unless Ben or Arabella tell me the next clue." Ian said as the elevator stopped rising.

" We don't have another clue!" I tried to tell Ian.

" Ian, _there isn't another clue_!" Ben assured him with a tone of annoyance and anger in his voice.

" Ian, listen. Why don't you come back down here and we can talk through this together!" Riley said as Ben placed a hand on his shoulder. Ian pointed a gun at Riley.

" Don't speak again." Ian threatened. Riley's eyes widened.

" Okay." He assured Ian.

" The clue. Where's the treasure?" Ian asked, gun still pointed at Riley. I grabbed onto Riley's arm in worry.

" Arabella?" Ian pointed the gun at me. " Ben?" He pointed the gun at Ben. After neither of us answered, he pulled the lever back on his gun, taking the safety off.

" The lantern." Patrick said.

" Dad." Ben muttered. The lantern? He was right! The lantern! The famous 'one if by land two if by sea' story! But… didn't they come by sea? There were two lanterns…

" The status quo has changed, son." Patrick said.

" Don't." Ben whispered. I began to think that something was up- both Patrick and Ben knew that there were two lanterns not one. What were they doing?

" It's part of Free Mason teachings." Patrick began. Ian lowered his gun. " In King Solomon's Temple, there was a winding stair case. It signified the journey that had to be made in order to find the light of truth." Patrick pointed to the lantern. " The lantern is the clue."

" What does it mean?" Ian asked.

" Boston." Ben muttered.

" It's Boston." I repeated with a sigh.

" The Old North Church in Boston where Thomas Newton hung a lantern in the steeple, to signal Paul Revere that the British were coming. 'One if by land, two if by sea'. One lantern under the winding staircase of the steeple. That's where we have to look." Patrick said.

" Thank you." Ian said, gesturing to the man to start the elevator again.

" Hey, hey, hey! You have to take us with you!" Patrick said.

" Why? So you can escape in Boston? Besides with you out of the picture, there's less baggage to carry." Ian explained.

" What if we lied?" I asked.

" Did you?" Ian asked pointing the gun at me again.

" What if there's another clue?" Ben asked. Ian lowered his gun.

" Then I'll know right where to find you. See you, Ben." Ian said with an evil grin. The elevator began to rise.

" No!" Ben called as they began to disappear.

" There's no other way out!" Riley yelled, his voice cracking.

" Come back!" Abigail called out.

" Ian, come back!" I yelled.

" Ian, you'll need us!" Patrick shouted. But it was too late. Ian was gone and out of sight.

Riley looked out into nothing with a look of despair on his face.

" We're all gonna die…" Riley muttered.

_**Afterword: There's the chapter! OHHHHHH MY GOD THEY FINALLY KIIIIISSSEEEDDD! =D YAY! I was so happy when I wrote that XD I'm looking forward to writing more! I hope you guys liked it! I'd like to thank my reviewers: **_Hawk's-GaL4077, HeraOfTheStars, _**and**_ Phillipfan24. _**THANKS FOR THE REVIEWS! They made me happy! =D Okay, so The next chapter will **__**probably**__** be up tomorrow, but I have to go back to school tomorrow and then I have rehersal after school for my shool's musical sooooo yeahhhhhhh XD I will try my best to get it up tomorrow! In the mean time, reviews would be loved! Thanks! =D**_


	14. Chapter Thirteen: The Treasure

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Thirteen: The Treasure

We all stood there a moment, contemplating the probable truth to Riley's statement.

" It's going to be okay, Riley." Ben said turning to him. He put a hand on my shoulder and looked at me. " I'm sorry I yelled at you and Riley." He then walked between us, back towards the lantern.

" It's okay, kiddo!" Patrick said, putting a hand on my shoulder and then smiling at Riley before he followed Ben.

" Okay, Ben, Patrick, what's going on? The British came by _sea_. It was _two lanterns_. You know that." I said following them, Riley and Abigail close behind.

" Ian needed another clue, so we gave it to him." Patrick said as he and Ben began to search the walls again. I smiled.

" You smart, smart dudes." I muttered, hearing Abigail giggle in disbelief.

" It was fake!" Riley said in realization.

" Indeed it was." I said smiling at Riley. He smiled back. " It was a fake clue!"

" The All Seeing Eye…" Ben muttered. I walked over and helped him clear the dust away from the faded painting on the wall.

" Through the All Seeing Eye." I said. Ben began to lightly knock against the stone. I helped him in trying to find a hollow space of some sort.

" But… that means by the time Ian finds out and comes back here, we'll still be… trapped… a-and he'll… shoot us then… either way we're going to die…" Riley informed us. I saw an odd looking lump of dust on the base of the stone and began to dust it off. There was a stone button.

" Nobody's gonna die." I said nudging Ben's arm and pointing to the button. He grinned at me. " There's another way out." Riley walked over, looking hopeful.

" Where?" Riley asked.

" Through the treasure room." Ben said, still grinning. He pushed a smaller eye shaped button and there was a puff of dust as the door dislodged from where it had been sitting for two hundred years. Ben grinned at all of us and handed his torch to the grinning Riley, who happily took it.

" Here!" Patrick said handing his torch to Abigail, and he and I walked over and began to help Ben push the door open. The door was extremely heavy and we all grit our teeth and pushed harder. Eventually we got the door open.

" Riley." Ben muttered, taking the torch from him. He walked in and I followed close behind. But as we walked in, our smiles fell. There was nothing. There was a small table coated in dust, dirt and cobwebs. A discarded vase lay on the floor and there were fallen lanterns and an ancient looking metal chandelier. Ben and I stood in the middle of the room, staring at the empty space around us.

" It looks like… someone got here first." Riley muttered.

" I'm sorry, Ben, Arabella." Abigail told us.

" It's gone…" Ben muttered, still in shock.

" We spent our whole lives looking for it…" I muttered. " I can't believe it…" I said running a hand through my now messy hair and let it rest on the back of my neck.

" Listen, Arabella, Ben-" Patrick began.

" It might not have been here been here before Charles Carroll told the story to Thomas Gates…" Ben muttered.

" It doesn't matter." Patrick said.

" We know…" Ben muttered.

" You were right." I added.

" No I wasn't. This room is real, Arabella, Ben. And _that_ means that the treasure is real. We're in the company of some of the _greatest_ minds in _history_ because you two found what they left behind for us to find and understood the meaning of it! You did it, kids! For all of us!" Patrick looked specifically at Ben. " For your grandfather, and for all of us. And I've _never_ been so happy to be proved wrong!" Patrick said with pride in his voice. Patrick had once told me he felt like I was the daughter he never had, and I always felt like he was my second father. I smiled at him and let out a breath that I had apparently been holding. Ben smiled a bit then let out a sigh, leaning against a small table for stability.

" I just… really thought we were going to find the treasure…" Ben said. I walked over to him and sat on the table beside him.

" So did I." I admitted.

" Okay. Then we just keep looking for it." Patrick said. Ben and I looked up at him in surprise. Was he really implying he was going to help us?

" I'm in." Abigail said. Ben looked over at her and we both began to smile.

" Okay." Ben and I said together.

" I hate to be Johnny Rain Cloud here," Riley said from where he was sulking in the corner. " But that's not gonna happen, because as far as _I_ can see, we're still trapped down here." He pointed out. But that didn't make sense… there had to be some way out. Like… an emergency door in case of a cave-in or something.

" Yeah…" Abigail said with a sigh.

" So. Ben. Where's this 'other way out'?" Riley asked.

" You see that's were it doesn't make sense. There _should_ be another way out. Like an emergency door." I said.

" Exactly. The first thing the builders would have done after digging down here was cut a secondary shaft back out for _air_." Ben said as Patrick began to search around.

" Right!" Patrick said.

" In case of cave ins." I added. We all began to search the walls and eventually we Ben pointed out a few circular metal pieces with carved designs on it on the wall. Ben handed his torch to Abigail and I helped him brush the dirt and cobwebs off of the metal pieces. Everyone else crowded around as Ben found a hollowed out piece. Ben seemed to recognize the shape seeing as he was staring intently at it, tracing the outline with his finger. He reached into his coat and took out what must be the meerschaum pipe.

" Could it _really_ be that simple…?" Ben muttered. He looked down at the two pieces in his hand.

" The Secret Lies With Charlotte…" I muttered. We looked at each other for a moment before Ben placed the white ship-like carving into the carved out metal space. It fit perfectly. Everyone was silent with shock as Ben pressed the scroll half of the pipe's handle into a small circular hole. He took my hand and placed it on the handle and together we began to turn the metal piece. At the top of the circle, we heard a click and then we pushed the metal piece in. There was a gust of wind as another door opened. We all turned to where the gust of wind had come from and saw an open door. Patrick quickly walked through, followed by Abigail and Riley. Ben and I stood there in shock a moment.

Ben grabbed another lit torch off the wall and together we slowly and cautiously began to walk towards the door. As we rounded the corner and saw where Patrick, Riley and Abigail were standing, I felt my breath leave me. We walked into a crowded room full of statues, chests, candles, and countless other things. I covered my mouth. It was real. The treasure was real! I felt a few tears roll down my face as everyone began to walk off to explore, shock still evident on their faces. I turned to Ben and gave him the tightest hug I had ever given him. I looked at him.

" It's real. Ben, it's real! We found it!" I said with a grin on my face. He grinned back and hugged me again. I happily hugged back and wiped the tears off my cheeks. I pulled away from him and took a shaky step forward, into the treasure room. I saw Abigail marveling at what must be scrolls from the Library of Alexandria, judging by the hieroglyphs on the shelf they were placed on. I walked towards a table, and on top of that sat a large mask that I recognized as an Ancient Greek theatre mask. I smiled and gently brushed the dirt from it, revealing chipped paint. I stood there and thought about what plays this mask could have been used in. I looked back at Riley and saw him walking over to a tall jade (or it looked like jade) Egyptian statue of Osiris.

" It's a big… bluish-green man… with a strange looking goatee…" Riley grinned. " I'm guessing that's significant! He grinned even more and hugged the statue. I laughed and watched him. He pulled away from the statue, dust and cobwebs on his purple hoodie. He grinned and walked over to me and gave me a tight hug, which I returned, disregarding the dust.

When we pulled back we saw Ben looking down at a small dish in a small column. He put his hand in, picked up some black powder and let it fall through his fingers. Using the torch, he lit the black powder and there was a hissing sound as the flames traveled down a set path in a small wall. The fire traveled down the small wall, down a set of stairs, between two stone foo-dogs, and it continued winding for what seemed like forever, illuminating a bigger room full of even more treasure. I covered my mouth in shock as Riley and I ran to the railing.

There were treasures from all over the world. Patrick grinned.

" Yes!" I said in excitement, giving Ben a one armed hug before he hugged me. I then hugged Ben again, gave a quick one to Abigail and turned to face Riley. He opened his arms for another hug.

I grabbed his face in my hands and kissed him. He seemed surprised for a moment, but came out of shock and kissed back. I wound my arms around his neck, and I felt his arms wind around my waist. I had never felt happier in my life. Riley's lips were soft, and I had expected nothing less. I pulled him closer and began to feel a bit light headed.

We both heard someone clear their throat. We both pulled back, but still held each other as we looked over at Ben, Abigail and Patrick. All of them were staring at us. Ben had an eyebrow raised, and was clearly the one who had cleared their throat. Ben was like my older brother, and he acted like it too. Patrick also acted like my father, so both of them were giving me the 'we'll talk about this later' look. Ben then looked at Riley and gave him another look, which clearly said 'and I'm talking to you later'. I felt a blush creep onto my cheeks and I looked down at Riley's converse clad feet. I glanced over at Abigail, who smiled at me. I smiled back.

" Well now that that display of clear affection is over…" Ben muttered. Riley blushed and ran a hand through his hair, rubbing the back of his head. Riley and I stepped away from each other and faced the room of treasure again. Riley spotted something and his eyes began to tear up.

" Riley?" I asked.

" Are you crying?" Abigail asked, still smiling.

" Look…" Riley said. " Stairs." We all spotted a set of stairs on the opposite side of the treasure room. Riley wiped at a tear on his cheek and I shook my head, resting it on his shoulder.

" Well, I say we get out of here, call Agent Sadusky, catch Ian and start trying to get this treasure out of here." Ben said smiling. I smiled back.

" Sounds perfect." I said.

We wound our way through the huge treasure room, occasionally stopping to look at a statue or at something else of interest- I could spend days looking at everything in that room. We followed Ben up the rickety stairs, and I was gripping onto Riley's hand, afraid of falling again. We walked through a door and up another passage way. We found a small crawl space, which must have been a fake tomb judging by the small space. Ben gave me the torch and he crawled up into the space. We heard Ben kicking something, and then a loud crack.

" Hi." We heard Ben say. " Do you have a cell phone I could borrow?" Ben asked. After a moment he said, " Thanks. Okay guys, you can come out." Ben called to us. We stamped out the torches and crawled through the tomb, back into the Trinity Church. I let out a happy sigh.

" We did it. And we're alive. This is the best day _ever_." I said grinning. Riley kissed my forehead and grinned back. Now all we had to do was wait for the FBI show up, and wait for our fate to be decided.

OOOO

Agent Sadusky was a very official looking man. He was wearing a pristine suit and tie, and he walked with a purpose. Riley, Abigail, Patrick and I all sat in a pew, and Ben sat at the front of the church. Sadusky walked up to Ben, who was holding the Declaration. Ben stood and as Sadusky walked up to him, he held it out to him.

" Just like that?" Sadusky asked.

" Just like that." Ben agreed with a nod.

" You _do_ know you just handed me your biggest bargaining chip?" He asked again. Ben shook his head.

" The Declaration of Independence isn't a bargaining chip." Ben said truthfully. I nodded and crossed my arms, watching them. " Not to me."

" Have a seat." Sadusky said nodding to the stairs in front of the pulpit. Both Ben and Sadusky sat down. " So what's your offer?" He asked.

" Oh, how about a bribe?" Ben asked. What the Hell was he talking about? " Say, uh, ten billion dollars?" Oh, so he was referring to the treasure. Sadusky looked over at Ben.

" I take it you found the treasure." He said.

" It's about five stories beneath your shoes." Ben told him.

" Hm… you know, the Templars and the Free Masons believed that the treasure was too great for one man to have. Not even a king. That's why they went to such lengths to hide it." Sadusky said. Ben gave him a look of surprise.

" That's right." He said. " The Founding Fathers believed the same thing about government." I saw Patrick smile. " I figure the solution will work for the treasure too."

" Give it to the people." Sadusky clarified.

" Divide it amongst the Smithsonian," Ben sent a small smile my way, and I smiled back. " The Louvre, the Cairo museum… there's _thousands_ of years of world history down there and it belongs to the world, and everybody in it." Ben said.

" You _really_ don't understand the idea of a bargaining chip." Sadusky chided. Ben smiled and laughed a bit. Abigail, Riley and I laughed quietly as well. Ben certainly had a way of stalling things.

" Okay, here's what I want. Dr. Chase and Arabella Fletcher's records stay _completely_ clean. Not one post-it note on their service records." I smiled at him and at Abigail.

" Okay." Sadusky said.

" And I want the credit of the find to go to the entire Gates family, with the assistance of Mr. Riley Poole and Miss Arabella Fletcher." Ben said. Riley and I smiled and I gave Riley a hug.

" And what about you?" Sadusky asked. Ben let out a sigh.

" I'd _really_ love not to go to prison. I can't even begin to describe how much I would _love_ not to go to prison…" Ben told Sadusky. He laughed quietly.

" Someone's got to go to prison, Ben." Sadusky said.

" Well, if you have a helicopter, I could help you with that." Ben said. I smiled. Looks like Ian was going to get what he deserved.

" I can get a helicopter. Who are we going after?" Sadusky asked.

" Ian Howe." Ben told him.

" Well, let's get right on that." Sadusky said standing. Ben smiled over at us and I smiled back and gave him a nod, still hugging Riley. This was turning out pretty well after all.

_**Afterword: WOO! This chapter is DONE! And officially on of my favorite chapters in this story! =D Soooooo there was more kissing XD They like each other! GO RIBELLA! (I give full credit to the name 'Ribella' to **__**Phillipfan24**__**. =D ) So I would like to thank my reviewers: **_Hawk's-GaL4077, ShayJaytheDJfromtheBay, _**and**_ HeraOfTheStars. _**Thank you guys so much for reviewing! It always makes me happy to see reviews! I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Reviews would be loved and cherished! Thanks!**_


	15. Chapter Fourteen:We Bonded Through Chaos

_Disclaimer: I do not own National Treasure or any of the characters. I only own Arabella._

Chapter Fourteen: We Bonded Through Chaos… But There's Still Chaos to Come

Ian, and the three men he had left, stood outside the Old North Church in Boston, Massachusetts. One man had a pair of bolt cutters, and after making sure no one was around, they cut the lock on the black wrought iron gate, pulled it off and walked up to the door. They just began to pick the lock, when a team of sirens sounded as dozens of police cars pulled up in front of the church. Officers and FBI agents all jumped out, guns trained on Ian and his men. I grinned at the shocked and angry look on his face as he raised his arms into the air and was shoved against a squad car. Ben and I were watching from the shadows of an apartment doorway across the street.

" You're under arrest, Mr. Howe." Sadusky said walking over as Ian was being handcuffed. " We've got you for kidnapping, attempted murder, and trespassing on government property." Ian looked up towards where we were standing and Ben and I stepped out of the shadows. Ian's eyes widened slightly and his jaw clenched. Ben and I looked at each other, shrugged and smiled over at Ian. As he was being forced into the squad car, I gave him a mocking wave, and then we saw no more.

Most of the chaos died down after Ian (and his creepy henchmen dudes) were arrested. A new lock was placed on the gate to the church, and everyone began to leave. Sadusky gave us a nod, telling us he'd talk to us after we got back to D.C. As we began to walk down the street, I removed the hoodie Riley had given me, and tied it around my waist.

" So, do you care to tell me what happened?" Ben asked casually. I looked at him.

" What do you mean?" I asked.

" You know, one minute you and Riley barely no each other and the next, you two are kissing like you've been dating for months." Ben said. I rolled my eyes.

" You're _so_ my un-biological big brother, Ben." I said giving him a one armed hug.

" Thank you. So, please, do explain." He said. I shrugged and gave him a look.

" Ben, he's a cute, adorable, hot, and caring guy my age. He's also funny and a really good guy. Why wouldn't I fall for him? And, I think I should be asking the same thing about _you_ and _Abigail_." I pointed out, smirking and raising an eyebrow.

" Touché." Ben countered after a moment. I laughed and bumped his shoulder.

" Come on, let's get back to D.C. I want to go home and take a shower." I told him, brushing more dirt off of my shirt, and looking down at my arm, which was pink from landing so hard on it. And with that, we left to go home, and finally have a moment to relax.

OOOO

_**Three Months Later…**_

The past three months had gone well. Well, first off, after I got back to my apartment after returning to Boston, I found a note on my door from the FBI that read _**'Sorry for the minor mess we made when searching your house. We hope nothing was damaged**_'. They had searched my apartment after finding out Ben and I were at the Gala. Thankfully, nothing was damaged. Over course of three and a half weeks, we managed to get all of the treasure removed (with the help of at least a hundred historians from America and other countries). We had divided the treasure up evenly to be put in every major museum we could manage to think of, but it was also told that there would be an exhibition at some point to move some of the more impressive pieces around for a bit before it had a permanent home. Exhibits were still being set up for the treasure, and we were getting invited every other week to go to one- not that I was complaining.

As Ben had asked, I had no problems with my job- in fact, everyone was suddenly glad that I worked at the American History Museum now. Guess finding one of the biggest historic (if not _the_ biggest) treasure 'hoards' in history had more than a few perks.

It had been now _exactly_ three months since we found the treasure, and Ben and Abigail had invited us (Riley and I) to the house they had bought so we could all just hang out for a bit, and talk about what museum opening we were going to next. The house Ben and Abigail bought was amazing. It was historic, and oh, did I mention that the actual name for the house and the land it sat on was _estate_. Yeah. They bought an entire estate. And it was also historical (knowing Ben, it absolutely had to). We were walking around the grounds for a while, Ben and Abigail holding hands, and Riley and I had been doing the same till his phone had rung and he had to take the call.

" Yeah, you got it, Chief." Riley said into his phone. " Thank you, bye." Riley hung up and shoved his phone in his suit jacket pocket, taking my hand again. " They want us in Cairo for the opening of the exhibit. They're sending a private jet." Riley told us in a monotone.

" That's fun!" Abigail said. She was wearing a nice blue dress with a white sweater, and her blond hair was tied back. Ben smiled at her, and then looked over at Riley and I.

" Yeah, big whoop. We could have had a whole _fleet_ of private jets! Ten percent, Ben! They offered you _ten percent_, and you turned it down." Riley informed us. I rolled my eyes and Ben and Abigail laughed a bit.

" Riley, we've been over this. It was too much! I couldn't accept it." Ben told him again. Riley let go of my hand and pointed to a finger.

" I actually still have this splinter that's been festering for three months from and old wood." Riley said as we all stopped walking.

" Okay, Riley, I'll tell you what. Next time we find a treasure that redefines history for all mankind, _you_ can make the call on the finder's fee." Ben told him with a smile.

" Can't argue with that, Riley." I said kissing his cheek with a smile.

" Funny." Riley told Ben with a smirk. " What do you care? You got the girl." Riley told him. My eyebrows shot up and I crossed my arm.

" True." Ben said giving Abigail a kiss. Abigail looked over at me, covered her mouth and began to laugh.

" If she's 'the girl' then what, exactly, am _I _?" I asked. Riley turned to me, took my hands in his and pulled me closer.

" You, my dear, wonderful, Arabella, are a woman. A woman who I love." He told me with a grin. I grinned back.

" Really good save, Riley." Ben whispered. Riley smiled at him.

" I'm not even classifying that as a save, I'm classifying that as a compliment." I told Ben.

" You should." Abigail told me. " It's true. He really does love you." I smiled even more.

" I know." I said. Ben smiled at me and I smiled back.

" Enjoy your spoils!" Riley said pulling me away from them. He let go of my hand again. " While I sit on one percent!" Riley said jumping into his brand new, bright red Ferrari. He jumped into the drivers seat, and I got into the passenger's seat. " One stinkin' percent- _HALF_ of one percent, actually! Once percent…" He muttered. I rolled my eyes and put on my seat belt as Riley put on his.

" I'm sorry for your suffering, Riley." Ben said smirking.

" For the record, Ben, I like the house." Riley said nodding back to the large stone house.

" You know, I chose this estate because in 1812, Charles Carroll met-" Ben began.

" Someone that did something in history and had fun, that's wonderful." Riley said starting the car. The engine was fairly quiet when it started, and it was more of a purr then a rumble.

" How do you live with him when he interrupts everything?" Ben asked me. I smiled.

" I have ways to shut him up and make him happy." I told him. I leaned over to Riley and gave him a kiss, which made him smile and kiss back. When I pulled away I smiled up at Ben. " See?" Ben chuckled and nodded. Riley smiled at Ben, putting on a pair of sunglasses.

" Could have had a bigger house!" Riley said as we began to drive away. The house was three floors, a basement, and an attic. It couldn't get any bigger- we were sharing my apartment and were looking for a bigger one.

Riley tried to make a sharp turn on the gravel drive way, and failed, rolling onto the neatly cut green grass for a moment before he straightened out and took off down the gravel road. I smiled as we left the estate and got onto the highway.

" So, how's the book planning coming?" I asked Riley. Riley smiled.

" It's going pretty well so far. I think I'll be able to start writing out the first half about our adventure pretty soon." He told me. I smiled back at him, running a hand through my hair, which I had trimmed so it was an inch or so shorter.

" That's good. And didn't you promise to help me learn stuff about computers?" I asked, smirking. Riley let out a laugh.

" Didn't you promise to take me on a tour of the American History Museum?" He countered.

" I did, and I plan on doing that after we get back from Cairo." I said.

" You'll finally get to see the pyramids." Riley told me, taking my hand and kissing it, keeping his eyes on the road. I scooched to the side of my seat and leaned against him, resting my head on his shoulder.

" And you know who helped build them? The aliens." I said. " Maybe we could find some evidence of them." I said, teasing Riley about his comment during our adventure about the aliens helping build the pyramids. Riley laughed.

" Don't tease me! I don't tease you!" Riley said.

" Uh, yeah you do!" I said with a laugh. " Every time I mention something about history, you tell me I'm a living text book- and that isn't true. That's not me. That's Ben." I muttered. Riley laughed again and kissed the top of my head.

" I love you, Arabella." Riley said. I smiled and sighed happily, kissing his cheek.

" I love you too, Riley." I told him.

We drove off back towards D.C. and I couldn't help but wonder what the future held for us. The craziest adventure of our lives was just ending, but so many new ones could be just beginning. My question was, what did _history_ hold and what did it plan to do with us next? I leaned my head back onto Riley's shoulder and knew that no matter what, we'd go through it together, and by together I meant Ben, who was like my older brother, Abigail, who was now like my sister, and Riley, who I loved with all my heart.

Riley and I had bonded through chaos, and I honestly couldn't wait for more chaos to be thrown our way… just not too soon.

_**Afterword: So that's it for this story! THANKS FOR READING IT!**_

_** OKAY. HAPPY NEWS TIIIIIME! * Drum Roll! * I'M WRITING A SEQUEL TO THIS! Of course I'm writing one! I finally bought National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets on dvd (a bit late, I know XD) and that will be the next installment!**_

_** I want to thank the reviewers who have reviewed the last chapter: **_HeraOfTheStars, PirateJedNinjaFairyHatPerson, Hawk's-GaL4077, _**and**_Phillipfan24. _**THANKS FOR REVIEWING! AND THANK YOU TO ALL THOSE WHO HAVE REVIEWED THROUGH THE HISTORY OF THIS STORY! THIS IS OFFICALLY MY MOST POPULAR FANFICTION! =D That makes me SO HAPPY!**_

_** Okay, so the deal on the sequel is this: I'm probably going to watch the movie tonight and get my ideas (if I have time to watch it tonight XD) and if I can't watch it tonight, I'll watch it tomorrow and begin to write the first chapter!**_

_** What I'll do to let you all know that the new story is going up, is I'll post an authors note to this story (as another chapter) and I'll tell you the name of the story, and then I'll post the story! =D I hope you all will read the sequel! MORE RIBELLA-NESS TO COME! =D THANKS EVERYONE! (Reviews are still loved! =D I'd love to know what you thought about the whole story and if you'll stick around for the sequel!)**_

_**~Mary**_


	16. Author's Note

**AUTHORS NOTE**

_ Hey everyone! Guess whaaaatttt? CHAPTER ONE OF THE SEQUEL IS UP! =D Quick, I know, right? XD I ended up coming home from school sick soooo I played some Assassin's Creed for a bit then watched the movie like twice, and then began to plan. Then I wrote. Then the first chapter was finished and I was like "WOOO! MORE WRITING!" =D Okay. So here is the name of the new story:_

**Another Chaotic Adventure**

_=D I'm so happy it isn't funny! So, the first chapter is short. Pretty short. But, I promise the second chapter will be longer! Please find the sequel and begin to read! =D_

~Mary


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